Loria

by Gunnar Hedman

  “So, it is you we have to thank for our having come so far?”

  “Yes, that is certainly not unlikely.”

  “Are you going to stay with us now?”

  “No, Allur, I can’t. I have only come so that I can warn you about Enaiga. She’s not who she says she is, but something much more dangerous. At dawn, she is going to change into an evil witch, and since my powers are no longer sufficient to protect you, you must be ready with the converter, and transform her, or otherwise she’ll have you in her power forever.”

  “But why not do it right now?”

  “No, because then only her harmless night-time half will be converted. Now, however, I am forced to leave you,” she said, with a tender glance, “but, heaven forbid, don’t forget what I told you.” With that, she disappeared into the dark of the night, as suddenly as she had arrived, and he almost began to think it had all been a dream.

  CHAPTER 19

  As dawn broke, however, he saw the proof that it hadn’t been a dream. To their amazement, when they woke up, Enaiga suddenly changed shape and became an ugly woman with a bent nose full of warts and matted hair. She was certainly not a beautiful sight and bore no resemblance to the women they had captured during the night.

  “The game is over now, my friends,” she cackled evilly. “You are going to have millions of reasons to regret that you ever entered the forest. The question is what I should change you to first.”

  Allur, luckily, was prepared. She had just begun to utter a curse over them when, to their overwhelming relief, stiffened and became silent.

  “What are you, really?” asked Allur, his voice shaking.

  “I am a girl who, long ago, after entering the forest, became trapped in a witch’s body as she inhabited my soul.”

  “Can we trust you now?”

  “Yes, I no longer feel any malice towards you. Do you know, by the way, that you are being followed by six soldiers?”

  “That’s news,” said Bediz, “but why so few? They usually send a troop of 24 men, with a commander.”

  “They have probably had some accidents along the way, which have decimated their number. There are countless dangers in the forest, and I’m surprised you’ve managed to get this far.”

  “Pure luck, actually,” said Zania.

  “No, hardly. You must have had protection of some kind.”

  “Well, whatever the case,” said Kark, “we’re just passing through and have no interest in staying any longer than necessary. Could you be our guide and help us find our way out of the forest?”

  “Of course, and I know a good way, and even a few tricks that can make it harder for the soldiers to follow us so easily.”

  “Fantastic, then I think we should leave as soon as possible.”

  Once they’d eaten a rushed breakfast of bread and dried meat, they realised that their supplies were almost finished, with not enough to last more than another day or two.

  “From now on, we’ll have to stay on the lookout for food,” said Kark, “berries, mushrooms, birds, whatever, yes, even squirrels will have to do.”

  “Oh, no, you can’t really mean that,” said Zania, with a shiver.

  “I sure do. Necessity has no law, and squirrels, which I ate a few of during my survival training, actually tastes pretty good, you know.”

  “I’d rather starve,” she said, stubbornly, tossing her hair.

  “Believe me, when I say that one usually eats anything when one is really hungry,” added Bediz, “but, if we’re lucky, we might come across larger prey.”

  They had just filled their water bottles at a little stream and sat down for a short break, when they suddenly saw two deer grazing peacefully in a clearing. With a flashing movement, Bediz armed his bow with a feathered arrow and let it fly with a swishing sound. The shot was perfect and only a second later one of the deer groaned, stiffened and fell to the ground. Death must have come immediately, for when they approached the animal was lying completely still with the arrow quivering in its chest. Since they were tired and hungry, they decided to set up camp on the spot. Once they had cut the finest meat into thin slices and let them dry in the sun, they roasted the remaining parts over the campfire.

  When they left the next day, their full food bags, enough for several days, had put them in a good mood. They trekked determinedly onwards, covering twenty kilometres or so before feeling that it must be time for lunch and a quick stop for rest.

  As the afternoon wore on, the landscape gradually changed character, becoming more forested the higher they went. They didn’t see any more animals, but occasionally they heard strident birdsong in the distance. It was a kind they hadn’t heard before, and moved them deeply. Enaiga provided the explanation when she said that it must have been the soul of a human being that had been captured and then transferred to the form of a bird. A few more hours, and they emerged on a small plateau, from where they had a breath-taking panorama view; they even thought they could just make out the sea of bacteria far off to the south. Zania was staring into the sunlight, scanning the crest of a steep and lifeless mountain ridge, when she suddenly shouted that she could see a house up on a ledge. This discovery surprised them so much that they just stood and stared for a while, until Kark broke the silence by telling them that it was probably a good idea, before they knew what they would be up against, to avoid being so openly exposed.

  “Is this where that beam of light we saw was coming from?” asked Neiger, once they had sought shelter in the forest.

  “It’s certainly not improbable,” said Anderika. “Do you know what it is, Enaiga?”

  “No, I don’t know anything about it,” she replied.

  “But you live here?”

  “Yes, but I never visit this part of the forest.”

  Bediz and Allur thought it best to leave the house alone, since they had all agreed that, “They’d be better off safe than sorry,” but they were outvoted by the others. Their curiosity drove them to insist on knowing what the house was hiding before they would leave. As moths drawn to a flame, the little house was merely bait, for they had hardly approached it when they found themselves trapped in a huge net. The net, which couldn’t be cut, was drawn around them ever tighter the harder they resisted, until finally they realised that resistance was pointless, and they gave up. Helpless, they wondered what was going to happen next, when the answer soon emerged. As dusk fell, they saw to their horror a large, hairy troll, with rings in his ears, come clomping along the trail. Laughing and talking in a guttural, unintelligible language, he squeezed their flesh and seemed enormously pleased. He immediately began to carry them off to a cave. Just as he was about to untie Zania, he froze standing still, his nose running and a glassy look in his eye.

  “Please, would you kindly let us go immediately,” shouted Anderika, who had held the converter pointed at him for the longest time.

  Apparently, the transponder had managed to interpret his language, because he soon granted her his wish, so that in only a few minutes they were all together again beneath the cliff.

  “That was the last charge left in the converter, so we better be extremely careful in everything we do from now on,” said Anderika, at which she turned towards the troll and asked him whether they could trust him.

  “Certainly, Gombi your friend is,” he answered.

  “Is that so, you say, and how come you capture people in this way?” she asked, briskly.

  “Different kinds of animals and creatures usually travel this way through the pass. Some the light to investigate, some to see what in the house there is and others just passing want to go but all of them get stuck in one of Gombi’s traps.”

  “And then what happens?” asked Caver.

  “I close them into the cave to eat them up when I hungry be,” he answered, while rubbing his hand over his stomach.

  “How awful,” said Zania, disgusted. “Why do you do that?”

  “Gombi must food have like all others. You also catch animals and
eat.”

  “But that’s not the same thing.”

  “Why not?” he asked and tilted his head, questioningly, to one side.

  “Because,” she said, without really knowing what she was going to reply. “But at least we don’t eat smart animals.”

  “This do you certainly, only because you don’t know what they say, you still understand what they fell. You kill also often each other.”

  “He does have a point there,” said Kark and twisted around uncomfortably.

  “Why by the way have the awful witch Enaiga with you who decides here?” he continued saying.

  “You said that you didn’t know this part of the forest,” said Anderika, turning towards her.

  “Did I?”

  “Yes, you did. You perhaps wished that we would be harmed?”

  “No, I really don’t wish you any harm,” she answered, sadly. “It’s the witch in me that is crying out and wants to be freed.”

  “She was cursed by the forest witch, Urdij, with strong troll runes,” said Gombi, “but I know how it could be broken.”

  “You do?” asked Anderika, surprised.

  “Yes, I brewed a stew and then waited for the full moon.”

  As dusk fell, Gombi prepared a stew, with numerous ingredients, which they weren’t so sure they really wanted to know what they were. Some of them he’d had at home in the cave, and other things he’d had to go looking for in the surroundings. Enaiga had now been transformed once again into the girl they got to know the previous night and, when it was time, they gathered beneath the cliff. The valley below them bathed in white moonlight that made the spruce forest shine and gleam like a fairy tale landscape, and off in the distance an owl hooted sadly. After Enaiga had taken a deep drink of the steaming drink, Gombi uttered a number of long, complicated formulas and then clapped his hands together with great strength, with the result that she fell lifeless to the ground. To their great amazement, they watched as a grey figure left her body and fluttered away into the gloom of the valley, upon which Enaiga rose up on unsteady legs, and cried out in joy.

  “The witch has left me. I am free at last!” she shouted repeatedly, tears running in torrents down her cheeks.

  “Yes, yes,” laughed Gombi, “now the witch must find another body to live in.”

  “Is she somewhere close by?” sputtered Zania, staring frightened all around her.

  “No, no, her soul has now returned to the others whom she belongs to,” he said, pointing down the valley.

  Enaiga, who was indescribably happy, alternatingly laughed and cried as she told how the witch had occupied her body for so many years, more than she could remember, and that she now wanted to get away from there as fast as possible.

  “I agree,” said Zania, resolutely.

  “Can you help us get out of the Blackwarj Forest, Gombi?” asked Kark.

  “Yes, yes, I know a tunnel that goes under the mountains, but first one the Fombi’s land one must pass.”

  “What are Fombies?”

  Gombi began to laugh wildly.

  “Evil trolls that land in my traps sometimes. Are small but very tasty.”

  “I believe you, but we will certainly try to avoid them, if possible,” said Kark.

  “Yes, yes, they many are and together very dangerous, but often they lie and sleep during the day. We go in the morning, so we to the tunnel arrive before they wake. But completely certain one never about Fombies can know. Sometimes also in the day are up.”

  “We have no choice,” said Kark. “There’s only one way to go and that leads straight ahead, whatever that might mean.”

  As they were getting ready for departure early the next morning, Gombi arrived, and told them, laughing, that he’d caught two soldiers from a Glennian army troop in one of his traps.

  “Weren’t there six following us?” asked Allur.

  “Their comrades in arms must have fallen victim to the forest’s dark forces,” said Enaiga. “There are many things to threaten one’s existence here, as you’ve seen.”

  “Alright, so what do we do with these, then?” wondered Allur.

  “No problem, they can stay here so I can eat them up,” said Gombi, eagerly, licking his lips. “Lots of junk that first must be taken away, only.”

  “No, that’s out of the question,” said Kark, disgusted.

  “Then a spell I’ll cast so that nice they’ll be,” he said.

  Once Kark nodded his approval, he began reading a string of troll formulas to them, and then finished by forcing them to drink a mouthful of the same potion he’d given to Enaiga. When one of them tried to protest, he threatened to eat him, at which the poor fellow became terrified and immediately consented, by gulping down several mouthfuls.

  “OK, now we can release them, never more trouble from them,” said Gombi, pleased.

  “It looks like you’ve received a command again, Bediz,” said Anderika.

  “Yes, but it was a pitiful force,” he laughed.

  One of the soldiers, Pilgar, were relatively young, whereas the second, Kioppi, was a bit past middle-aged. They were both unusually strong and athletic, which in combination with Kioppi’s sense of routine and experience were probably contributing factors to their having escaped harm thus far.

  Soon they were ready to march, so they set off, and after a few hours had traversed the narrow pass and emerged onto an open grassy plateau, surrounded by high peaks.

  “Now are we in the Fombi territory and very careful must be,” said Gombi, sweeping his eyes across the horizon.

  “How long will it take to get to the tunnel?” asked Allur.

  “Me not can say, your time not understand, just hurry.”

  The further they went, the more barren the landscape became, with bleached grass spreading as far as they could see. The sun shone from a cloudless sky and they could smell a strange odour that reminded them of gunpowder. They continuously scanned in all directions, afraid that the Fombies would pop up, but happily nothing could be seen, and after a few more hours they had crossed the plateau, and from its edge saw that a dramatic, forested landscape, ringed by high white summits, lay ahead. When they were part way down a steep ravine, however, Gombi suddenly raised his hand in warning, and told them to stop and listen.

  “What do you hear?” asked Allur, a moment later.

  “Me hear many small feet bringing themselves nearer.”

  Soon they all could hear it, at the same time as they felt the ground vibrating slightly.

  “Quick! The tunnel is near!” shouted Gombi, who then descended in huge strides, all the while shouting to them to hurry.

  It was difficult for them to keep up, and they were all close to collapsing in exhaustion, when he finally stopped in front of a large, darkly shining cliff.

  “Here is it,” he said, and pronounced the incantation, “Zats Iki,” at the same time as he stroked the rough surface with his hairy hand.

  Unperturbed he continued his kneading motions, but nothing happened, and they had almost given up, when there was a sudden grinding sound in the ground and a dark tunnel entrance appeared.

  “Hurry, hurry!” he screamed, excitedly, his eyes bulging.

  Once everyone was inside, he recited another set of magic words, so that the wall scraped closed behind them. This was none too soon, for almost immediately they heard a violent din and the tramp of thousands of feet.

  “Oh! That was close!” shuddered Zania. “Thank you for saving us, Gombi!”

  “Good, good, don’t thank, Gombi save himself, too,” he replied. “Come now, we go on. Not be afraid of Fombies anymore.”

  “Where do we go?” wondered Kark.

  “I show,” giggled Gombi.

  The tunnel, which was framed in black wooden beams thick with spider webs in their corners, eventually became a cave with hard shiny rock walls. Surprisingly, it wasn’t entirely dark, since it seemed to be dimly illuminated by a weakly glowing fluorescent mineral. They tramped onwards until Gombi waved to
them to stop, some ten minutes later, and he stood sniffing through his large nose.

  “What now?” asked Anderika.

  “Now back I must go.”

  “But why?” asked Allur.

  “You not wish Gombi die. Outside the mountains I not can live. Only continue forward so you come out,” he said, then stomped off and disappeared in the distance, without any leave-taking.

  Now they had no other choice than to continue on into the cave, until it forked, which posed a dilemma. After deliberating a while, they decided to follow a little stream, thinking that it would eventually lead them out of the mountain. Now and then the cave widened into large vaults, only to narrow again. There was little variation and the cave system seemed endless. At last, tired and worn out, they were forced to recognise that they must have gotten lost, so they paused for a break, to discuss the situation.

  “Enaiga, since you used to be a witch, isn’t there anything you can help us with?” asked Kark.

  “No, unfortunately,” she grimaced. “The knowledge that I had earlier received from Urdij evaporated in the same instant she left my body.”

  Just when they were feeling the most desolate, Neiger shouted that he could see a butterfly on the ceiling.

  “Quick, we must follow it!” Caver shouted, excited. “It must have entered the tunnel by mistake and might eventually try to get out.”

  Several times as they rushed through the cave, they almost lost sight of the fluttering butterfly, but were filled with hope when they thought they could feel a slight draught. Only a few minutes later, to their great surprise, they were out in the open air once more, in a flowering meadow that lay bathing in the warm and light-filled afternoon sun.

  CHAPTER 20

  “Thank goodness! I was almost beginning to doubt we’d ever get out of there,” wheezed Anderika, exhausted. She gulped in the fresh air, which, after their long sojourn in the stuffy, humid cave, felt wonderful.

  “Have we left the forest behind, then?” asked Zania.

  “Yes, unquestionably,” answered Enaiga, “and I’m never going to set my foot anywhere near it ever again!”