by Joanne Vruno
Other family members appeared, and my thoughts moved to a time of laughter and sharing. A wonderful meal of hamburgers, salad, and grilled veggies filled us up as we sat around the picnic table and talked. Emily told us all about her day playing with our cousin Anthony, who was a half year older than she was. They had turned the swing set into a fort for the day. The old tattered blankets were still hanging over the side bars on either side of the swings. It was nice to know Emily’s life was still the same even though mine had changed so drastically.
We stayed in the yard until the sun began to drop down to the horizon. Then we all started bringing our dishes and leftover food to the back door. As I returned for a second load of plates, I noticed movement in the vegetable garden. Could it be our gnome? I hadn’t met him or her yet. I slowly walked over to the garden as if I were examining the plants. I was so hoping it would come out and introduce itself to me as the tomtes had done. I wondered where it had gone as I looked around. It must be in the rhubarb or raspberry plants, since they were the largest in the garden.
I debated about whether to talk to it or not. I decided if it was here to protect me, it should know I could see it now, so I said, “I’m twelve now and can see things I never could before. I love making new friends, especially in our garden, with the toads, crickets, and katydids. I wish you a good night.”
There! I had given him the hint that I knew about mythical creatures without giving too much away. I waited awhile and then went to pick up the plates to carry inside. I thought the gnome would now understand I wanted to be its friend.
Chapter 6
I was met by an upset grandmother the next morning. “Aly, didn’t you hear anything I said yesterday? Why would you approach an unknown creature? I was so shocked when Lunt came to me last night to tell me about your approaching him. What were you thinking?”
“It was Lunt? Why was he in our garden?”
“He was there because your gnome needed to be somewhere else for a few days. Maybe Silver’s correct in worrying about you being ready to take over the guardianship. All yesterday morning what did I teach you?” asked Grandma with a fury.
“That you should never acknowledge a creature. But, Grandma, I knew there was a gnome in my yard— you told me so. I just thought instead of scaring it like I did with Elsa and Enar, I’d make an attempt at friendship. I didn’t say hello. I pretended I was talking to the bugs and toads.”
“Aly, you followed him to the garden! You let him know you could see him. Then you told him your age. Twelve was the age of adulthood in humans of the past. That by itself would alarm any mythical creature. You unwittingly gave them all the information they needed to know to realize you have the ability to see them. If it hadn’t been Lunt, you would’ve put yourself in danger along with the rest of us. Secrecy! I’ve been stressing that over and over. That was yesterday’s lesson, and then you go and act so carelessly!” Grandma scolded.
“I honestly didn’t think there was anything to fear in my own yard. I just wanted to become friends with my gnome,” I said, tears coming down my face.
Grandma sighed. “Never approach a creature ever! I’ll introduce you to your gnome when he returns. You’re never, ever to speak to another creature without my or Silver’s introduction. Can you promise me this?”
“I can,” I replied. “Grandma, I’m really sorry.”
She patted my shoulder. “This is all for your safety, Aly, and the safety of others. I wasn’t going to tell you this yet, but now I realize I need to. We all need to be on high alert. That’s why Silver came to me last week. The rock elves are in North America. A band of light elves encountered two rock elves in Nova Scotia. They caught them—hopefully before any information about the light elves was leaked out. But the light elves have moved their village as a precaution. Since neither of us has seen a rock elf in person, we need to be wary of any mythical creature we encounter.”
I sat still, looking at Grandma as I took in the information.
“I’ve decided to change my plans today. Instead of teaching you how to ignore mythical creatures, I think you first need to meet the elves. Maybe if you see them, you’ll realize why they’re so important to guard. I sent a bird early this morning to let them know we’re coming. I haven’t told Silver about your mistake last night, but that doesn’t mean she won’t know about it. Silver has eyes and ears out around this whole area. You see, Silver and her husband, Dolph, are responsible for the whole light elf village. They made a vow to their king to keep this band of light elves safe. If Silver knows what you did, you may not be received kindly by her,” said Grandma.
Was that why Silver looked at me with such dislike? I wondered. From now on I’m going to prove to her I’m responsible. I can only imagine how she’ll treat me today. I dreaded that thought.
Grandma explained that we needed to have a reason to be hiking off the trail in the woods, and how she often used photography as an excuse. She handed me a Nikon D3200 camera and put the strap of an identical camera around her neck. “This is the perfect disguise. Every time I hike to the village, I use it. I’ll be teaching you photography techniques as we go. My neighbors love the nature shots I take. They’re used to seeing me head down there. Creatures of mythology don’t show up in pictures. Their magic keeps them invisible on film, so they have no fear of the camera. As soon as we leave the house, we cannot speak about any creature. I’ll signal you when it is safe, once we arrive at the village. Until then our conversations will only be about things in the human world, about photography and such.”
I nodded my head and hung the expensive and complex camera around my neck.
“Oh, and by the way, that’s now your camera to keep. For now let’s just keep it here at my house until I figure out something I can buy for Emily. I don’t want her to get jealous because we’re spending so much time together.”
“Grandma, this is a very expensive gift. I have no idea how to use it, and I’d be afraid of breaking it. I’ve only taken pictures with a small automatic. Are you sure I’ll catch on how to use it?”
“Aly, your grandfather and I have spent years taking photographs all over the country in our travels. These cameras aren’t as difficult as they seem. I’m positive you’ll be handling it like a pro by the end of summer.”
I looked at all the different knobs on the camera and turned the lens back and forth before I looked up at Grandma again with a huge smile. “Thank you for this really awesome camera, Grandma.”
Grandma smiled at me as we stepped out of the house and walked to the end of the street towards the Battle Creek woods. We entered on the walking path and followed it until we were in deep enough not to see anything but woods. Grandma pointed to a double tree trunk. “I love taking pictures between these two trunks. They seem like they frame the shot. Why don’t you try out the camera.”
I took off the lens cap. Grandma showed me how to center the shot in the small square and click. I immediately looked at the screen to see how the shot had turned out. It was perfectly centered. Grandma patted me on the back and told me I was a natural at photography. Then she suggested we leave the path and hike up a hill.
The hike was tough. We climbed over fallen trunks of old trees and through branches on understory shrubs, always watching our footing, always holding onto the cameras to keep them safe. As I looked back, I noticed the path wasn’t visible anymore. Just when we started to climb our third hill, I heard the tapping of a woodpecker. Just like in her yard, Grandma took out her amulet from under her shirt and made it flash. We took a few more steps and she flashed it again. What before the flash had looked like a hill full of ferns among the massive trunks of great trees, now appeared to be a miniature size village on the wooded ground and in the trees.
I felt as though I’d gone back in time. I saw small stone buildings with tree-bark roofs covered with thick green moss. It could have been a quaint vi
llage from medieval times. The elves seemed all dressed for that era: the females in gowns and the males in tunics with their pants tucked into their boots. Their faces hid all signs of age. I had never seen beings with such a majestic presence.
Several elves stopped to examine me as we stood at the edge of the village. A few approached Grandma, embracing one of her fingers. Grandma responded with a hand hug around each elf’s back in return. I could tell they loved my grandmother. All faces turned to a nearby oak stump as a door, not seen before, opened suddenly. Out stepped Silver, with a very distinguished looking male elf at her side. They were both dressed in burgundy clothes, Silver in a long dress, and the male in long pants and a tunic, with brown leather boots up to his knees.
As the two walked directly up to us, Grandma said, “Aly, I’d like to introduce you to Silver’s husband, Dolph. Dolph, this is Aly, my granddaughter, the future guardian.”
Dolph bowed, “It is an honor to meet our future guardian. Welcome to our village. You’ll soon be spending many hours in training here with me. I’m to be one of your instructors during your learning period,” he said.
I smiled at Dolph. Then I turned towards Silver and decided to make a brave move: I held out my hand to her. Out of politeness, she had to take a finger and shake it with her two hands. It was not like the hugs Grandma received. I said, “Silver, I’m glad to see you again.”
Silver’s face hardened as she replied, “Now that you have seen the village, secrecy is even more important to live by. Aly, I hope you’re taking the guardianship very seriously. Many lives depend on it.”
My face turned red with embarrassment. I knew she had been informed about my incident with Lunt. “I promise I’ll never put this village in danger.”
“All of our lives depend on that promise. Look around and see all who will suffer if you break that promise,” said Silver. She extended her arms to include the whole village.
I concentrated on the faces of the elves before me. There were many more elves than I had expected—and of all ages. With a closer look, I noticed more homes hidden under the ferns that grew among their buildings.
Dolph bellowed in a fatherly voice, “I’d like to introduce everyone to our new guardian, Aly! She’s Alice’s granddaughter. I’m going to give her a tour of our village. Feel free to come forward and introduce yourselves as we approach your area. Please come one at a time. Do not crowd her.”
Even with Dolph’s cautions to his people, I soon felt a bit overwhelmed by the introductions of so many elves during my first visit. I was never going to remember the names, which were mostly traditional Swedish names from years past.
As I walked the perimeter of the village, I was taken aback by the realization that there was nothing from modern times in the village: no electricity, phones, computers or any other technology humans daily use. The elves lived only with nature. Their means of transportation was birds or animals, which I thought particularly fun and wished I could trade some of my everyday technology for this. Dolph explained to me that animals lived in harmony with the elves. He pointed up in the branches to some squirrels’ nests that also held elf sentries, along with the squirrel families. And, as if he read my thoughts, Dolph stated, “Every elf’s purpose is to protect and enrich nature. We’re here to keep a balance of Earth’s living creatures and plants. Our techniques are the same techniques our forefathers used to heal the land and water. Our biggest hurdle is healing what humans destroy. You won’t find electronic devices here. They harm nature more than help it. You may think we live very primitively, and in many ways we do, by human thinking. But we feel further advanced than humans because we know how to save parts of the planet. We do this daily. We take extreme pride in every plant, animal, lake, and river we can cure of pollution, pesticides, and chemicals humankind inflicts on the natural world. What your society ignores we protect. We don’t think humans are bad, just self-centered because they don’t focus on the consequences of their actions. What humans do to nature, without being conscious of the other living communities sharing this planet, is very difficult for elves to watch.”
I was taken aback by Dolph’s words and thought about what I took for granted. I had never really concerned myself with humankind’s effect on nature. We recycled glass, paper, and cans at our house, but what about all our electrical usage and gas for driving in our daily lives? Here was a community of beings whose sole purpose was to correct what we polluted or destroyed, and until a couple of weeks ago, I hadn’t even know it existed.
Dolph went on to explain that each elf was trained in healing techniques. Some of these techniques involved elf magic; some were just basic knowledge of earth and its own remedies. Some water sources could be healed with the transplanting of vegetation along a shoreline, while others might need many elves to magically implement a cure. Either way, there was far more nature to be cured than what the elves could possibly achieve, but they never gave up.
“Your training here will start in a couple of weeks, Aly. You’ll learn our signaling techniques and how to read them, as one of your first lessons. This will be extremely important to learn. It’ll be our number one way of communicating with you without others knowing. It’s done with many different sounds of nature, and you’ll need to know what each means. During all the time you’re in the outside world you’re being observed. If an elf sees potential danger for you, he or she will signal you in advance. You are never alone while you’re in the outside world. As you are our guardian, we are also yours. The only places we cannot be sentries against danger to you are inside buildings. Your tomtes are there for you at home, but at school, in stores and other buildings you are on your own. Your grandmother will teach you what to do in those places.”
When we finished the tour of the village and had we returned to Grandma and Silver, I thanked Dolph. Grandma gave Silver a hand hug and shook Dolph’s hand with her finger as we said our goodbyes. Then she patted my shoulder and held out her hand toward the woods, indicating it was time we departed from the village. Before we headed down the hill, Grandma directed her amulet towards the village and made it flash. I wanted to ask her right then what it did, but I knew better than to speak about it at that moment. Especially when Grandma announced that we needed to keep looking forward for new photo opportunities. I took that as a signal to not look back.
We climbed down the hill, stopping here and there for more photo shots. I tried to take pictures of landmarks to help me locate the village—odd-looking trees and raspberry bushes. I was sure, at this moment, I would probably miss the whole village if I tried to find it on my own. I thought the next time Grandma took me to the village, I’d need to take pictures as we went.
When we turned on the path and exited the woods onto the roadway, we were greeted by Grandma’s neighbor Darlene, who lived across the street. I had met her numerous times during my childhood, and she was curious to see my pictures. Grandma announced to her that this was my first day doing photography, so we only had taken a few shots this time.
After viewing my first shot, Darlene stated, “Alice, I think Aly’s going to follow in your steps to become a great photographer. I love the clarity of the shot, especially the raspberries hanging from the branches.”
We chatted with her a few minutes and then said our good-byes and returned to Grandma’s house.
I watched Grandma until she closed her front door before starting in with my questions: “Grandma, what does the amulet around your neck do? I’ve seen the light from it several times now. Is it magical?”
“It blocks out sound and blurs vision. When I flashed it in my garden the first time Silver appeared, it blurred Emily’s vision of Silver and made our conversation silent. It also has the power to make someone sleep. Today it blocked out our voices and blurred the elf habitat. Every time I leave the village I use a blurring and sound spell on it. Then, if another mythical creature ventured nearby, they would not
be able to hear or see any sign of the elves. It is one of the most important aspects of the amulet. You will inherit it when you’re ready and we have taught you all of its qualities.”
“Can I see it?”
Grandma held out the golden sun-engraved amulet. “It has a carving of the midnight sun and has been handed down for hundreds of years.”
“What is the midnight sun?”
“In the northern lands such as the Scandinavian countries, the midnight sun appears following the summer solstice, which is June 21st. During this two-week period the sun never sets, and so it is called the midnight sun. It is considered the most magical time in the mythical world. All magical powers are stronger for that two week period, but on the 21st all powers are tripled in strength. As guardians we’re more watchful that day than others.”
“June twenty-first is in less than two weeks from now. What do we do differently?” I asked.
“For you, nothing. In fact, I think I’ll have you stay home on that day if you can promise to stay close to your home. I’ll be spending some time at the village in the morning, and then stay close to my home also. The elves will let us know if we’re needed in any way.”
“Grandma, you can trust me to do what you ask. I won’t mess up anymore.” I needed her to know I was taking the guardianship seriously.
“I’m glad to hear that, Aly. I should get you home now. Tomorrow we have much to cover.”
Chapter 7
Grandma informed me when I arrived that we were going to do some practice with her garden gnome, Lunt, in the back yard. I was nervous about meeting him after my foolish attempt a few days before. He must have thought me very careless. I swallowed my pride as I followed Grandma to the back yard.
Grandma started the day by flashing the amulet towards the sky. I knew then we could speak clearly about anything we wanted to without being heard or seen. Lunt came out from the storage shed in the back corner of the yard. He was taller than the elves by a few inches and had a green pointed hat on his head, with white hair peeping out underneath. His white beard fell down to his chest over his white button-down shirt, which was tucked into his green pants. His face had a look of weathered wisdom and confidence. I could tell he was older than the other creatures I had met. His accent was strong as he spoke in English to Grandma. “So, Alice, I finally get to meet your granddaughter. Miss Aly, we meet again. I am Lunt, the gnome who watches over your grandmother’s yard.” Lunt bowed to me as he spoke.
