The Huldra Hostility

by Michael Almich

  He looked at Eddie, who was squinting at the thing on the tree. Just as Shy was going to tell him to stay put, that he was going to go help Tom T, Eddie spoke.

  “It’s a troll! Shy, it’s the same kind of thing I saw when we rescued Gust. Ralph said it was a troll! That is what is climbing up those trees!” He was pointing now.

  Shy looked again, and the image clicked into place in his brain. The behemoths were wrapping their one leg around the small trees, and then pulling their bodies up with one massive arm. The other arm that hung free looked twice as long as normal and Shy soon realized they were carrying some form of club.

  He now knew what the bellowing roars were that they had heard. He had to do something before those two monsters reached the level that Tom T was defending. Shy turned to Eddie.

  “Wait here. I will be right back”

  Before he could turn away, Eddie responded, “No way! I am gonna help too!”

  The fierceness in his voice warmed Shy’s inside. Once again, he was not alone.

  They quickly scrambled forward. The first step in reaching the battleground was a long rope bridge. It did not have a plank walkway. Rather, it was like a cargo net lying flat. There were overhead ropes for handholds, but the going was slow due to ensuring they put each foot on a rope as they moved forward.

  Shy stopped and looked forward. The first troll was just clambering off the tree onto a platform. Shy caught a whiff of its sour stench and scrunched his nose. Its heavy muscled mass shook the usually sturdy platform. It tilted slightly. It would be mere seconds before the troll reached Tom T. The goblins kept coming. Tom T was knocking them down, but the black shiny armor they wore took most of the beating. So, there was no break in the action for the diminutive seelie fairy. He could not defend his backside against this lumbering troll!

  Shy had stopped and now Eddie was right behind him. Shy could see in Eddie’s eyes that he too realized what the outcome was going to be. Shy was so frustrated! Where were the others? Couldn’t they hear all this commotion? Shy supposed they were all asleep. If they were all here together, they might have a chance. As it stood, even if Shy got to the troll in time, he wouldn’t be able to stop it. It would swat him away like a fly. Their only chance would be to distract it.

  Shy took a deep breath, preparing to yell and draw its attention, when something swooshed just past his head and blocked out the moonlight for a second. He caught a scent of pine mixed with a faint hint of lilac. He stared at the scene ahead, transfixed, as his vision popped. A giant bird of some sort navigated through the tall pines at a great speed. It latched onto the first troll with huge talons at the end of long legs. The troll bellowed as the bird pulled it from its newly acquired perch on the now tilted platform. Shy watched as the bird did not drop the beast, but rather carried it off into the night. As the bird swooped and tilted between trees, the troll was bashed against the old growth pines. Finally, in the distance, Shy heard another bellow. He assumed the bird had now dropped its adversary.

  The odds had now changed, and Shy knew Tom T could also sense it. He had renewed his vigorous efforts at cracking the goblins. Shy spied the second troll. It was even with the platform that Tom T fought from. Shy began to move forward again. As he reached the other side, with Eddie hot on his trail, he glanced at the second troll. It was having difficulty reaching the platform from the tree it had chosen to climb. Shy could see its silhouette stretching across from the tree to the platform. It looked like a giant ape. It stretched further, trying to grasp the edge of the platform.

  The giant bird again came to the rescue from the night sky. It barreled into the outstretched form of the troll. The troll fell from the tree and landed with a thud far below. The bird rolled gracefully in the air and transitioned back into smooth flight.

  Shy turned back to the nisse as Eddie climbed onto the platform. They were close now. The goblins had seen the bird, and what had happened to their troll reinforcements. Shy thought they looked like they were looking for an escape route. Sure enough, one of the five black clad, bat-nosed goblins hopped on a nearby tree, face down, and skittered downward. That is all it took for the other four to bail just as quickly. Just like that, the battle was won.

  Tom T leaned on his staff, breathing hard. Shy and Eddie rushed up to him.

  “Are you OK?” Shy asked quickly.

  The nisse simply nodded.

  Unexpectedly, Shy caught the faint scent of pine and lilacs. He felt the air move the hairs on the back of his neck. They began to stand straight up. He saw Tom T staring above their heads. The nisse made a slight bow. It was more like the inclination of its head, but it was filled with respect. Shy knew there was something or someone standing behind him. From the faint scent, he knew it must be the giant bird.

  He glanced sideways at Eddie. The boy’s eyes were wide. He also knew what was behind them. Shy slowly turned and found himself looking into the chest plumage of a giant bird. As he slowly raised his eyes to meet those of the hawk-like creature, he realized that the feathers were a lighter shade on its breast and under the wings, than on the back of the wings. It was too dark to see colors though. The creature had a fierce visage. It turned its head to look at Shy with one eye, the way birds do. That eye glowed a faint sky-blue color, seemingly giving off light of its own. The eye seemed to search his soul as it looked him up and down. Then it moved its glare to Eddie. When it was satisfied, it looked back to Tom T. What happened next shocked Shy, although it shouldn’t have.

  The bird began to speak!

  “This is the one?” the deep, regal voice rolled from its beak.

  Shy looked back and saw that Tom T answered with another nod.

  “We come.” The bird was now addressing Shy. “We come to stand for the seelie.”

  It acted like those words were explanation enough. It said no more, but looked expectantly at Shy. Silence ensued, and the bird continued to hold Shy in its stare. Shy felt like he was expected to say something.

  “Uummm…” He had to be careful, because he remembered that the fairy folk did not like to be thanked. They were offended by such things. His mind scrambled for what he should say. “Well… you are a formidable foe…” he stammered trying to sound older than he was. “The unseelie should quake when you stand against them.” He wasn’t sure where the word quake had come from, and almost laughed out loud under the stress.

  The giant hawk’s eye opened a bit wider for a second, but that was its only acknowledgement of Shy’s words. It then looked back to Tom T, tilted its head, spread its massive wings, and leapt from the platform. It dropped initially into a free fall, but with one flap of its wings it began to rise. Spinning through openings in the forest canopy, it disappeared into the night.

  “What was that?” Shy asked Tom T.

  He had been racking his brain to recall anything from The Faerie that may have alluded to this creature.

  “Shylock, that was a hábrók. They are few now, but long ago they were a fierce and powerful type of seelie.”

  “And it helped you…. Does that mean it is on our side? That is what it meant by saying it would stand with the seelie?”

  The nisse sat awkwardly onto the edge of the platform and said, “I do believe it is ‘on our side’ as you so eloquently put it. Evidently word has spread of your bumbling mistake in taking the box from the place where it had securely rested for nigh on two centuries.”

  Shy was surprised at how old the box was, or at least how long it had been in that lake, he corrected himself. He quickly sat next to Tom T, not wanting to waste the nisse’s talkative mood. He motioned Eddie to sit also, but the boy just started to pace and watch into the darkness.

  “How did the box get its power?” Shy broke the silence.

  The nisse turned to Shy with a strange, far off look in his eyes. He said, “That, Master Shylock, is a long and cumbersome tale.”

  “We have time…” Eddie said, surprising Shy and the nisse.

  Chapter Sixteen

 
; “What if the moon is not out?”

  The day of the full moon and the first day of the Camp Games broke with thunder and lightning. Shy about fell out of his hammock. In two summers they had barely had two rainy days in a row, much less a thunderstorm. Waking up to one now made for a very ominous start to what Shy figured was going to be an important couple days.

  Thirty-six hours prior, Shy and Eddie were sitting sixty feet in the air, on the edge of a damaged platform, at the edge of the forest cabins, begging and pleading with Tom T to tell them the history of the box, which, it turned out, had a history much deeper and richer than they had ever suspected. The history began in Scotland ages ago, and ended here, in the enchanted land that now held Camp Lac Igam.

  As Shy listened to Tom T tell the story, he quickly became confused, for the nisse had slipped into a form of speech that sounded ancient and different, yet somehow the same. Shy was able to follow along, in bits and pieces, as the mystical story unfolded.

  Shy couldn’t believe they kept the creature talking for as long as it did. As soon as the nisse would pause in his telling, Shy or Eddie would prompt him with, “What happened then?” or, “And then?” The nisse would then slide right back into his trancelike state and continue his story in that strange cadence and language. After almost an hour, during which time the mosquitoes had definitely located Shy and Eddie, the nisse wrapped up his tale. He ended his tale with, “And now, Shylock, you see what was once ended, you have begun again.”

  After the nisse ran off, Shy and Eddie talked quietly on the way back to the Raven. Between things that they each picked up on, they were able to piece together the story they had been told. It seemed that centuries and centuries ago, across Northern Europe, something existed called the Seelie Court. Led by the most powerful fairies, this group ruled the fey with a fair hand. They were generally benign to humans, and the two races lived relatively symbiotically. Humans had much more knowledge of the fey during these times. Many legends and myths arose in human culture during those times, and over the centuries they have disappeared. Not all, however. Some, Tom T claimed, have stood the test of time with at least a grain of truth remaining.

  Like in any race, there were some fairies that had darkness in their soul and craved power and dominion over others. These dark fairies would prey on humans, draining them of their being, their energy, their life, and their soul. They would then store that energy. The Seelie Court would find these dark fey and hold court, punishing the offenders.

  This continued for a long while, the unseelie fey practicing their arts in hiding, always aware that the Seelie Court may catch wind of their activities. This continued until the day that the great unseelie unifier - Shy and Eddie were sure that Tom T had said its name, but they could not come up with it – forced unseelie fey to unite and form their own court. The Unseelie Court began to store all their human energy in a magical box, created by dark forces to harness the energy, and store it for use when needed. This was the very same box that Shy now kept in his pillowcase!

  The Unseelie Court would ride through the countryside, seeking humans to capture. This was the beginnings of something called The Wild Hunt. Eventually, the Seelie Court became aware of the unseelie activities, and would mount up their own hunt in pursuit. Thus the Wild Hunt occupied a place in history.

  Like all things, the hunt eventually came to an end. The Seelie Court captured the unseelie unifier, and put the unseelie court to death. By this time, damage had been done and the humans had learned to fear the fey. The coexistence of the two races ebbed. Eventually the fey used Glamour to vanish from the human world. All that remained were myths and legends that changed with each retelling, with each generation, until only grains of truth remained.

  After the capture, the Seelie Court struggled with what to do with the box. It was created for dark purposes. Eventually they sent it to the New World and created the lake in which it was held. A special kind of Glamour was created to keep it from unseelie awareness, and protectors were set to watch over it. Both of which were meant to keep the box safe from unseelie forces, but no thought was given to human forces.

  So, when Shy and his fellows went in search of treasure, the protections of the box did not work. When Shy removed it from the lake, word spread quickly among unseelie forces that had already suspected it was near.

  Now, it appeared inevitable; war was in the future. A war that concerned the fate of humanity, but a war they would never be aware of, with the exception of Shy and his fellow campers.

  As Shy and Eddie settled into their hammocks that night, Shy felt the box through his pillowcase. It felt much colder and darker than ever before.

  He drifted off thinking about how the hábrók had saved them. Was there more of the giant birds? What other creatures would come to their aid against the huldra and the army that was being formed?

  Now it was storming, and it looked like they may have to slog through the camp games in the rain. The two boys got up and got dressed. Shy checked that the box was safe, and then they headed off to the Hive to meet the others. Daniel greeted Shy, and motioned to the zip line, but Tad stopped them.

  “We can’t use that with the lightning.” Tad said as he directed them to the other exit with his hand.

  “Seriously?” Daniel asked. “After all we have been through, and you won’t let us go on the zip line when there is a little lightning?”

  Shy looked up quickly at Daniel. There was something in his voice, some kind of defiance that Shy had not heard before.

  Daniel saw Shy’s glance and the defiance turned quickly to sheepishness, and he said, “Ok…ok.”

  They moved off with the others and worked their way toward the exit and eventually to the Elevator. Before stepping out of the Hive, Shy glanced back at Tad and saw him with brows furrowed, deep in thought. Shy wasn’t able to dwell on what he had seen, as the boys were in a pretty buoyant mood. They felt pretty confident heading into the games.

  The hike down to the Lodge was wet, and took longer than the zip line, but the boys didn’t seem to notice. As the competitive spirit had taken hold, and as they told stories to each other of their practice sessions, confidence skyrocketed. Until, that is, when Shy was finally able to get a word in, and he reminded them all of Sawyer’s ‘fight’ with the trout. They were still laughing as they walked into the Lodge.

  Dripping, they filed into their seats. Clancy stood up by the food watching the campers sort themselves out to their tables. After waking up from the shock of seeing Gust again, she seemed to be coping well. Gust had told her that he had talked to Professor Moriarty, and the professor had agreed to step aside and let Gust reassume his position of Camp-Jack-of-All-Trades. In fact, he told her, the professor had gathered all the information he had needed, and had headed back to his academic life.

  Shy had watched the camp director over the last couple of days, and he still thought he could see her glance out of a window here, or stare at a pancake a little too long there. Shy imagined that just like any injury, there must be some lasting effects of having a mythical, folklore legend take control of your mind at times. Shy realized then that he kind of liked Clancy. She had punished Crutch last year, in Shy’s defense, and really seemed to care for Gust. Plus, she made really good pancakes, and Shy now realized he was famished. He felt like he had eaten more this summer than all the previous summers of his life, and yet, as he looked down at his stomach, he knew there was not an ounce of fat there.

  Suddenly the squelch of Clancy’s favorite torture tool, her megaphone, rang out. The kids simultaneously covered their ears.

  “Let the Camp Games begin!” She began. “As last year, these will be spread out over two days. As happened last year, the winners will get free camp tuition for the following summer. Tomorrow, after we finish, your parents will arrive. Everyone understand? Good. So the first game will be bird calling, followed by fire starting…”

  Henry forced Sam to give him a high five.

  “Those will be fo
llowed after lunch by kayak racing and hand fishing. Later, at dusk, we will go out as a group and conduct the final game of the first day… the wolf howling. Then, tomorrow morning, immediately after breakfast, we will conduct the animal tracking competition. With luck, the animals will be active tonight, leaving us many tracks. Then we will do log chopping, and, before your parents arrive, we will conclude with the plant identification event.”

  Henry now gave Ralph a fist bump and whispered to him, “You are our anchor.”

  Ralph looked nervous.

  Clancy continued, “So, now I need to review good sportsmanship with you…. When we are competing with our fellow campers…”

  As usual when Clancy began to lecture, Shy’s mind began to wander. His eyes drifted over the Cave cabin boys, who had not bothered him at all this year with no Crutch to lead them. He looked over at the Shore cabin table. As he stared, a cute girl with brown hair and big, brown, doe-like eyes looked straight at him. He wasn’t sure he knew her name, but it seemed like he had seen her often this summer. It was strange, considering he hadn’t really had much interaction with any of the Shore cabin campers. He realized she was smiling at him, and he quickly looked away, feeling guilty.

  Of course his gaze settled on the Lakes table and Portia. As if on cue, she looked directly at him. He immediately turned red, due to a combination of Portia’s gaze and guilt from thinking the other girl was cute. He looked back at Clancy, but could feel that Portia’s gaze remained on him. Shy realized that with all of their adventures, he hadn’t even asked Portia what event she was doing. He needed to rectify that after breakfast.

  Again, the megaphone squelched out its high pitched noise. Clancy’s speech was done. Shy’s stomach rumbled. Gust smiled as he picked their cabin to get in line first. Shy asked for a lumberjack sized stack of pancakes, picked out the crispiest bacon, and went back to his spot at the pine table. He didn’t look up until he had cleaned his entire plate.