The Huldra Hostility

by Michael Almich

  As they left the Lodge, Shy noted that the thunder, lightning, and rain had stopped and was replaced with a soft mist. The air was so moist and humid that Shy was instantly wet again. He looked up at the sky. It was a solid dark grey, with a few darker lower clouds running swiftly across the sky, as if they were trying to catch up to the storm that had passed.

  A thought occurred to Shy, as Daniel walked up from behind him and gave him a bump.

  “What are you thinking about?” The taller camper asked as he too scanned the sky.

  “What if the moon is not out?”

  “What?” Daniel asked, confused.

  Eddie and Ralph had now moved up next to them.

  “If there is no moon, will Shy be able to call on those Lesidhe tonight?” Ralph jumped into the conversation.

  Shy thought about how Ralph was not only more perceptive than the others, but seemed more outspoken lately.

  Daniel turned to Ralph, “Whaddya mean?”

  “If you can’t see the moon, will it still work to call those fairies that might be able to help us with the box?” Ralph answered his question with a question of his own.

  At this Daniel turned forward again, and was silent, working out the consequences of what Ralph had said. They all followed Clancy to the edge of the open area by the lodge, very close to where they held the tree climbing the previous year. Shy held back as Clancy summoned the bird calling participants forward. He was still dwelling on the cloudy sky.

  Henry stepped to the forefront as the participant from the Forest cabins. For the Cave cabins, it was a thin, reedy boy. The Shore cabin competitor was the brown-eyed girl that Shy had locked eyes with a short while previously in the Lodge. Inevitably, it was Portia who stepped forward for the Lakes cabins. Shy felt a strange uncomfortable feeling rising up from his stomach seeing the two of them standing next to each other. The other girl glanced briefly at Portia, studying her face. Portia, for her part, was completely oblivious of the girl. At least that is what Shy thought at first. Eventually he noticed that Portia seemed to be making an effort to look anywhere but towards the girl next to her. She wasn’t smiling. Shy couldn’t figure out what was going on. Maybe Portia didn’t feel well, he thought.

  The competition started with Clancy instructing each competitor that there would be three rounds. Each round, they would each pick one of the birds listed on a small electronic device that she held. One could choose a bird on the device, and it would play the call of that bird. Herself, Gust, and the four counselors would rate each competitor on how closely their call resembled the recorded version, and then they would average the ratings of all three rounds. Highest average score would win. This year events would be scored six points for first, four for second, three for third, and two for fourth.

  As they proceeded through the competition, Shy was surprised by two things: Henry was really good, and the brown-eyed girl and Portia were very clearly aware of each other and competing furiously. A grimace here, a glare there… Shy watched carefully and now caught it all. That didn’t mean he understood. They must have some problem with each other. He made a note to himself to ask Portia about it later.

  Just then, Henry belted out the screech of an eagle. This was really the first non-songbird that anyone had chosen. Henry nailed it. He watched the judges’ reaction and knew that Henry had scored big.

  They were now on the last round. Portia, appropriately Shy thought, chose the beautiful and melodious indigo bunting. The Cave boy chose a chickadee, which had been done several times already. Shy felt the judges were tired of that one; he sure was. Henry chose a catbird. Shy had never heard of one, but the first part of its call did indeed sound like a cat. Finally, the brown-eyed girl chose a rose-breasted grosbeak. Her imitation was so smooth that Shy was in awe. He saw Portia glaring at the girl.

  All of these contestants, with the exception of the Cave boy, had obviously spent more time preparing than Shy had. He felt a bit guilty, but he did have more important things going on.

  There was just a short squeal from the megaphone as Clancy announced, “We will take a half hour break while we tally the scores from this event. Plan on meeting near the woodpile or bonfire pit area in a half hour. Thank you.”

  The campers split into their cabin groups to discuss the first event. Shy congratulated Henry on a job well done, and then listened to the rest of the guys jabber, while he looked over to find Portia.

  Finally, he was able to get her attention and motion her over. They both snuck away from their respective groups.

  “Wow… you were really good at that!” Shy began.

  “Thanks…” She said shyly.

  Shy rarely saw her blush, but she seemed to be doing so now.

  “So, who’s that girl from the Shore cabins?” Shy began innocently.

  “Why?!” Portia’s whole demeanor changed with that one question. Shy was taken aback.

  “I just… it seemed like… well, it seemed like you were angry with her.” He tried to explain.

  “Whatever Shy. Don’t act like you don’t know what is going on.” She said flatly and turned her back on him and walked away.

  Shy was dumbfounded.

  He held his hands out to her back as she stormed away. Still holding them out, he turned to see if anyone was watching, thinking to himself, what did I say?

  Several of the guys were watching him, but quickly turned away. All except Daniel. He walked over.

  “What happened?” Daniel asked.

  “I was going to ask you the same thing.” Shy said while reviewing the conversation in his head. “Everything was fine and then I asked what that Shore cabin girls name was, and Portia just flipped.”

  “Dude… you can’t ask a girl that you like what another girls name is.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because then she assumes you are interested in the other girl.”

  “It just looked like they were glaring at each other… like enemies. I just wanted to know what the deal was.” Again Shy had his hands out in the ‘what’s going on’ posture.

  “Ha! Maybe the other girl likes you… Maybe Portia thinks so anyway. Don’t worry, all girls are crazy. She will get over it…. By the way, that girl’s name is Vivian, I think. She goes by Viv…” Daniel said over his shoulder as he walked back to the other boys.

  Daniel’s words echoed in Shy’s head as he looked back to where Portia now stood, amongst the other Lake cabin girls. The brown-eyed girl, Viv, had seemed to try to catch his attention in the Lodge that morning. It did seem like he had seen her, or noticed her a couple times earlier in camp. What if Daniel was right? She was cute, but he liked Portia and the way she treated him… at least until now. Shy didn’t want to think about it anymore. Girls hurt his head he decided, and he moved back towards his buddies.

  As he walked over, he looked up at the sky. There was still no break in the cloud cover. He could hope, but it didn’t look to good. It was still a full moon, he told himself, regardless of whether you could see it or not.

  Eventually the half hour was up, and all the groups wandered over to the fire pit area. There were four piles of wood, sticks, some type of cord, along with some tiny piles of soft fluffy material. Clancy began to speak again.

  “We are happy to announce the results of our bird calling competition. First, let me say that all of us judges were very impressed. All the competitors did a wonderful job, and the scores were very tight. In fourth place was… the Cave cabins. Taking third was… the Forest cabins. Second place goes to….” Here Clancy gave a very long, exaggerated, dramatic pause. “… the Lake cabins!”

  A cheer arose from the Shore cabin girls. Shy instantly scanned the crowd to see Portia’s reaction. When he finally spotted her, he couldn’t see anything. She was not looking his way, and was surrounded by her cabinmates. He looked over at the Shore cabin girls and found that while all Viv’s fellow campers were congratulating her, she did indeed keep stealing glances over at Shy. He turned away quickly, embarra
ssed and confused.

  “Okay, okay, everyone. Settle down. Our next event is fire starting. Will the appropriate contestants please step forward?”

  Sam stepped forward, along with three others. Arya was the contestant from the Lake cabins. When Clancy told them to begin, all four used the same method. Shy had seen it before on a survival show on TV. Using the cord and one thin stick, each contestant made something that looked like a bow. The string then wrapped around another stick that they held perpendicularly to the bow. As they moved the bow back and forth in a sawing motion, the cord would make the vertical stick spin back and forth. The end of that stick would create friction on whatever it was held against. They placed the end of the stick into the soft fluffy stuff that looked like lint, on another log. The hope was that the friction would catch the lint-like material on fire. Then that small flame would need to be transferred to a pile of sticks they had already prepared. It was a very precarious operation, and sometimes could stump even the most experienced survivalist.

  The big red-head certainly had the method down, but Sam struggled. The more he struggled, the angrier he seemed to get. Near the end, Shy thought Sam might be able to start a fire just by looking at it, he was so angry. Arya was the first to get her fire going. First by a long shot. Once she had the pile of sticks going, she stood up, and the Lake cabin girls cheered. Eventually, the Cave boy got his going, followed by the Shore girl. Sam never did get a fire started. He was obviously disappointed. No amount of consoling by the guys raised his spirits.

  Clancy announced that after two events, the score now stood Lakes cabin ten, Shore cabins nine, Cave cabins six, and Forest cabins five. The next events wouldn’t take place until after lunch. The boys decided to traipse back up the hillside to the Forest cabins and hang out in the hive.

  It was a somber group that trudged uphill. No one wanted to be in last place. Shy always had the worry, buried deep in the back of his brain, that somehow his mom might not be able to afford camp the next summer if they didn’t win. He couldn’t let that happen.

  The boys reached the Sentinel just as Tad came hustling up the rugged path behind them.

  “Look at you guys!” He chided them. “You all look as if you have already lost. There are a lot more camp games to go. Change your attitude, think positive. C’mon…” He encouraged as he grabbed the rope for the Elevator.

  “Lake cabins already have more than double what we have…” Ralph pointed out as they all climbed onto the platform of the lift.

  Shy began to block out the banter as Tad heaved and they lifted into the air. He mentally recited his checklist of worries. Was Portia still angry with him? Would the clouds clear by tonight? If not, would it still work to call on the Lesidhe? If that failed, how would he protect the box all year long again? And finally, what if his mom couldn’t afford to send him back to camp? He began to feel pressure building in his head. He even felt a little dizzy. When they arrived at the Hive, he grabbed a lemonade, downed it, and chose one of the hammocks. He fit his head in between two pillows, and tried to go to sleep.

  ***

  When Tad woke him over an hour later, the others had left for the Lodge already via the zip line.

  “Shy, what’s the problem? You feelin’ okay?” Tad asked, concerned.

  “Nothing is going right, is all. The clouds, the games… and stuff.”

  Shy sat up now on the hammock, and Tad plopped into the one next to him. They both looked forward, through the screens of the opposite wall. Neither spoke for a while.

  Finally, Tad said, “The clouds? What do the clouds have to do with anything?”

  Shy explained his concern, and then flowed right into his other worries.

  “I get like that sometimes. Overwhelmed. It seems like everything is falling apart at once. All I can tell you is, that is the way life is sometimes. You need to be able to compartmentalize.”

  Shy looked at him, “What does that mean?”

  “It means you need to find a way to separate the issues in your head, and not let them affect one another. Work on one for a while, then put it aside… into a compartment… in your head. Put that one away and take out a different issue, work on that for a while. That’s how to not let everything overwhelm you. Does that make sense?”

  Shy thought about it, and nodded.

  “Good. I am starving. I didn’t eat fifteen pancakes this morning like some people.” Tad said with a smile. “Let’s go get some lunch.”

  ***

  Shy walked into the Lodge with Tad. He felt a bit self-conscious. It seemed like they were almost the last ones to arrive. He was surprisingly hungry yet again, and devoured a wonderful type of macaroni and cheese with crunchy bits covering the top.

  He had been thinking about what Tad had said. He couldn’t change the clouds. Whatever happened on the topic of the full moon would happen. There was simply nothing he could do, but try it and deal with the results. So, he took that problem and filed it away in the back of his head, for later. He really didn’t want to deal with the Portia issue right now, so he pushed that from his thinking also. He could try to do something about winning the games. That is where he needed to focus at the moment.

  As if on cue, Clancy began directing everyone to head down to the beach. They would start the kayaking competition soon. Shy tried to gather all of the boys on the way down to the beach. He did his best to pump up Finn, and to get the others to do so also. As they came to the spot where Shy had first run across the huldra, he and Daniel exchanged glances, and he felt a shiver course through him. It seemed like that would be their response forever.

  Shy shook off the feeling and tried to keep the group upbeat. They finally reached the rocky shore and walked down to the pebbled beach. There were four kayaks on the shore, with their two ended paddles. Gust, who had stayed in the background recently, stepped forward. Shy had spoken with him several times, but he seemed to be pretty scarce in general. Shy had thought about it the previous night. Between Gust’s scarcity and the conversation he had overheard the night of the hábrók appearance, it felt like there was something going on that Shy was being kept out of. He had decided he was probably just being paranoid. Yet, he kept having those feelings.

  Gust, who didn’t need a megaphone, began explaining the rules of the event. It was simply a race, but they had to guide their kayaks around several buoys that had been placed in the always cold waters of Lake Superior. The trick would be negotiating the rough waves that broke against the rocky shoreline. Those waves strove to capsize all four of the kayaks as the air horn that Gust held sounded the start of the race.

  Finn dug in with his paddles and was the first to make headway against the rough waters. He was clearly stronger than the other four competitors and it showed. He slowly pulled away from the others. He had just passed the second buoy, and the others had barely passed the first when disaster struck. His kayak was pulled, seemingly by an unseen force out into Lake Superior. Finn was paddling furiously against the current, but they could all see now it was no use. The other paddlers kept going, avoiding the spot where Finn had been caught up. They were now rounding the second buoy.

  Gust was running on the beach, yelling “Rip! It’s a rip current. Paddle this way!” He pointed parallel to the shore. Shy knew there was nothing he could do except hope Finn saw Gust.

  Finally, Finn looked up to shore and did see Gust pointing. He began to paddle perpendicular to the current, and battled his way free. By now, he was way behind. He didn’t hesitate, but dug in furiously. His kayak shot back into the race. He gained on the other three swiftly, but Shy could tell it wouldn’t be enough.

  The Lake cabins again finished first, with Kennedi - who Shy had discovered was a big athlete back home – finishing a length ahead of the Cave cabin boy. They were followed closely by the Shore cabin girl, and Finn.

  The dark skinned boy was clearly frustrated as he walked ashore. He walked over to Clancy and Gust, ready to argue that it wasn’t a fair competition. Gust
held up his hand as the boy approached, and turned to the camp director. They held what looked to be a bit of a heated discussion. Shy and his buddies were all making their way over, as were most of the campers. Everyone wanted to know how this would be judged. The four counselors formed a ring around Gust and Clancy, as they obviously argued, and kept the campers away. Finally, it appeared that Gust gave up, and nodded his assent to Clancy. Shy watched his face and noted that it was now a mask of indifference.

  Clancy addressed Finn and said, “Since studying your event, where it would take place, AND the risks associated with it should have been part of your preparation, the results of this race will stand. Rip currents are somewhat common here on the North Shore. Had you known how to steer out of it, you still probably would have won. The Camp Games scores now stand: Lakes sixteen, Shore twelve, Cave ten, and Forest seven. Please meet at the Lodge in thirty minutes and we will head to the river for the hand fishing competition.”

  The group broke up, with the Lake cabin girls buoyantly bouncing up the trail toward the Lodge. Henry and Finn both approached Clancy to argue her decision. Shy watched from a ways away, but knew it was no use. They were now almost mathematically eliminated from winning. Only a very small chance remained. Eventually even the loud mouthed Henry was silenced, and the boys trudged back to the Lodge.

  On the way, Shy pulled Sawyer to the back.

  “We gotta do this, you and me.” Shy stated.

  Sawyer nodded, unusually serious.

  “I saw you get that fish before… I know you can do this!” Shy encouraged.

  The usually boisterous boy nodded solemnly again.

  They walked on in silence, and Shy thought about how it was up to them to change this situation around.

  ***

  The shoreline downstream a little ways from where the waterfall roared was pretty crowded with all the campers there. Gust was explaining the rules to the four competitors, and Shy was turning this way and that, looking for any sign of fey. He was always nervous now in this gorge. So much had happened over the course of two summers down here that he just couldn’t let his guard down. He could see several of his buddies doing the same. He even caught a glance of Portia and Claire - who had obviously been avoiding him - looking around. His vision did not catch or pop even in the slightest. Evidently this many humans made the fey scarce.