Summer of Elves

by Joanne Vruno

  With Lunt somewhere close to my side, I entered where I thought Dolph had shown me the other day. The ground was flat at the beginning of this route, which might have been a blessing, since I had fallen yesterday on the hill. I was getting my camera ready to take some shots when I heard an unusual male voice coming from around a cluster of three medium-size pine trees. I looked around for Lunt but he was still hidden. I froze not knowing the best tactic: keep going forward or turn and retreat back out of the woods. That was until I heard the words coming from a gravelly voice: “So, I have found a lady of the light all alone in the woods. You are definitely a prize to capture. Seems your hidden location has now been revealed. I wonder what the rock elves will give me as a gift for bringing you to them.”

  I could not see who was talking, but the voice definitely was not friendly. Whomever he had found was in danger, and I had to believe by his reference to light that it was someone from the village. Suddenly I knew who. “Aly, do not make a sound. I know you are there. Yes, I am speaking to you inside your head. I can sense you can hear me. What I’m going to ask of you is very important. I want you to walk around the trees holding up your camera as if taking a picture, and walk right towards me without stopping. It you knock over the dwarf, that’ll be fine but don’t intentionally do it. Just head straight to me and do not stop. The dwarf’s armed, so don’t look at him at all! Just act like you’re out for a casual walk looking for nature shots. He’ll definitely start yelling at you, but just focus on walking to me, nothing else. Don’t worry about stepping on me. I promise you won’t hurt me. Once you reach me, just keep walking straight through the woods. I know you can do this. Just stay calm.”

  The fact that Silver could speak to me inside my head didn’t seem as troubling as the request she had made. I took the camera in my hand and peeked through the branches of the pine trees. I could barely make out the creature, which was much larger than Silver. I took a deep breath before forcing myself to walk around the pines into the view of Silver and the dwarf. I followed Silver’s orders, trying to focus on my breathing again and not showing my fear. At the same time, I slowed down my walk so that it seemed more casual. I wanted to run but kept making myself move at a normal pace. I headed straight to Silver, hoping she was right and I wouldn’t hurt her. I clipped the dwarf as I passed him and heard him make a very rude remark. When I reached Silver, she jumped onto my shoe and clung to my leg. I felt her light weight but knew not to look down at her. I kept walking, not knowing which direction to go. Silver hung on.

  Silver’s voice appeared in my head again as she directed me, “Aly, make a wide u-turn and return to the field where you entered the woods.” Silver wasn’t very heavy, but her grip was iron clad. I knew she wasn’t going to fall off. We both could hear the angry swear words from the dwarf as he searched for Silver behind us.

  I probably did a wider u-turn than needed, but I did not want to chance crossing paths with the angry dwarf. His words were pure hate, and he was threatening Silver with every vile word that came out of his mouth. All I could think of was, I wish he never was in our woods. I wish he was never in our woods. I wish he was never in our woods! as I kept walking.

  After what seemed like endless hiking—though I knew it wasn’t—we made it to the open field where I had entered the woods. The dwarf’s yelling had stopped. He must have given up. I looked down towards Silver for the first time in this whole ordeal and saw that her clothes had changed color to match my jeans, like a chameleon would. No wonder the dwarf hadn’t seen her hanging onto my leg!

  Asa swooped down to the ground in front of me and Silver climbed on her. She looked at me and smiled, as she spoke inside my head again, “Go quickly back to your grandmother’s now. Lunt is still near us and will be watching over you. You should be fine.”

  I let out a big sigh as I watched her fly away. Then I put the lens cover on the camera lens and quickly retreated to safe ground: Grandma’s house. On arrival, instead of disappearing into the back yard, Lunt actually came inside the house with me.

  I ran to Grandma and clung to her. Tears started flowing down my face.

  Lunt spoke for me, “Alice, you would have been so proud of her today. A dwarf had Silver cornered and was threatening to bring her to the rock elves for a reward. Out of the trees came Aly. She walked straight to Silver, who leaped onto Aly’s shoe before the dwarf realized it, and off she walked, out of the woods. She saved Silver.”

  Grandma pulled me out of the hug to look me in the face. “Aly, how did you know to do that?”

  “Silver instructed me the whole way. I could hear her in my head. It was like she was talking out loud to me but her mouth wasn’t moving, and I was the only one who could hear her. It must have been her magic,” I said, shaking my head in confusion over what had happened out in the woods.

  Grandma smiled. “It wasn’t only Silver’s magic, Aly. It was yours too. You’ve just accessed one of your powers. You can now speak to Silver, Dolph . . . and me using telepathy. That’s one of our forms of communication, but we need to be in proximity for it to work. Silver sensed your presence, and I’m sure she was relieved when she knew you heard her. She can hear your replies. I can’t believe you already have this power. It didn’t come to me for a full year. Your magic may be much stronger than mine. Maybe that’s what happens when it takes so long for it to be passed down. Who knows, but more powers may start showing up. Watch for them.”

  Lunt said, “Aly was definitely a guardian today. She tricked that dwarf, and was he ever angry! I’ve never witnessed such fury. He was throwing fallen logs as he circled the area. Aly heard language from him she maybe has never heard before today. I stayed hidden from the dwarf’s view and observed the dwarf’s actions to see if he had caught Silver’s movement. The funny thing was, shortly after I left, he quieted down. When I backtracked to see if he had gotten wind of where Aly went, he was gone. I’m curious where he went so quickly,” said Lunt.

  Grandma was in deep thought as she looked towards me. I was wondering if the elves had killed the dwarf to guard their whereabouts, though I had a hard time believing they were capable of such an act. They always seemed so kind and gentle.

  Grandma stood and went to the back door. Lunt and I looked at each other. Soon we were joined by Silver, who looked directly at me. “Aly, do you remember the words you kept repeating in your head as we were walking around in the wide u-turn?”

  I thought for a minute, not quite knowing what she meant. Then I remembered. “I was thinking, I wish he was never in our woods.”

  “Exactly. I checked with the sentries observing the whole situation to find out if they knew where the dwarf went. Each of them gave the same answer: He just disappeared. Dwarves don’t have the power to vanish, but a guardian has the power to make them disappear. Aly, you unknowingly made that dwarf go back in time to where he came from. That probably also erased his memory of ever having been in our woods.”

  I blinked. “No, I couldn’t have. I was just thinking that in my mind. I never spoke it.”

  “Not out loud, but I heard it as you repeated it, and that’s when the dwarf’s loud rant stopped. You sent him back in time. He may reappear in our woods, but at this moment he has no knowledge of elves being here. Today two powers have awakened in you, and those powers may have saved the village,” declared Silver.

  “But . . . but I’m just a twelve-year-old girl. How could I do that?” Silver has to be wrong. I might have been able to hear her with telepathy, but to make someone go back in time? No way did I do that! Something else must have. Something else must have happened to the dwarf.

  Grandma and Lunt just stared at me. Neither of them said a word, as if they too were stunned by Silver’s statement.

  In a low voice, Grandma said, “Silver, this is too soon for such powers to appear. She hasn’t been trained how to handle them. She could inadvertently harm someone without mean
ing to. We need to change her whole training program now. Should I teach her or Dolph?” asked Grandma.

  “I think both of you should. Dolph can test her powers and you can keep them in check,” said Silver. “Aly, for now you have to be careful not to wish anything so strongly or direct bad thoughts towards anyone. We have no idea what your level of strength is in this area. Until we know and you learn out how to handle it, keep all negative thoughts away.”

  I felt sick, and fear was rising up inside me. How does one control thoughts? What if I slip up? I can’t make my mind go blank. It’s constantly on. Can I really hurt someone? I just wished to be home in my room so I could have a good cry. And then I was.

  Chapter 17

  My head was spinning. I looked around my bedroom. How did this happen? I just thought it and poof! There I was on my bed. What must Grandma, Silver, and Lunt be thinking? They don’t know where I am. I need to get back to Grandma’s, I need to get back to Grandma’s, I need to . . . Poof! I was back at Grandma’s house.

  “Where did you go?” asked Grandma, with a look of complete concern on her face.

  “Home,” I said weakly, really frightened. “I thought I wanted to be home, and poof! I was. This is scaring me, guys. I can’t be popping in here and there or making others disappear. I don’t like this! How can I make it stop!”

  Silver looked at Grandma for her thoughts and then to me. Lunt was wide-eyed in shock, the kind of shock I was also experiencing, but Grandma remained calm. She said, “Aly, you’ll stay with me a few days. We’ll come up with an excuse for your parents. Silver, you need to send Dolph here as soon as possible. You need to spread the word we should be informed of any unusual happenings. Lunt, you and Alma are in charge of surveillance for anything missing or moved in the yard. Lina and Berg, I know you’ve been watching. I’m going to need your help. We need to keep tabs on Aly so she doesn’t disappear again.”

  Lina and Berg both accepted their duty and suggested that Enar and Elsa should keep an eye out at Aly’s home.

  “We have much to teach quickly, so let’s get going!” directed Grandma, with more authority than I had ever heard in her.

  Soon everyone was out of the room except Grandma and me. “Now, Aly, the most important thing for you to do, as hard as it may seem, is to remain calm. Fear and excitement seem to make our minds and hearts race, which causes the powers to become less manageable. They’re more easily controlled if we stay calm. Can you do that?”

  I wasn’t at all sure I could. “I’ll try but I’m not sure it’ll work.” I took deep breaths and thought about skating and soaring across the ice. I always loved the feeling of flying on ice with the wind in my face, and being able to go faster than I could by running.

  Grandma left the room to call my parents and ask for their permission to keep me for a few days. I didn’t know what reason she gave, but when she returned she told me all was fine and that my mom would drop off some clean clothes and my toothbrush.

  I was fairly calm when Dolph arrived. He quickly made me laugh at the situation, saying I was destined to perform disappearing acts in the circus. Dolph always made the guardianship seem less strenuous. He seemed to understand me and made training fun, instead of like a job. He had a grandfatherly way of teaching: he mixed a bit of history in with the current lesson. There was never a strict order in his teaching. I understood from him that there were no single paths in magic. Instead everything depended on the immediate circumstance. He always showed me a variety of training techniques and how each was used. Maybe that’s why he was the instructor, and not Silver. All I knew was that I felt a genuine grandfather-granddaughter connection with Dolph.

  Dolph and Grandma sat next to me on the couch. Each suggested different ways to stay calm: from counting to ten, deep breaths, humor, thinking of something funny. I tried each one and found some worked better than others.

  “Staying calm in any circumstance in your life also gives you the ability to think more clearly, and reason through a problem or situation better. Most of all, it’ll frustrate your opponent in a conflict or competition. They don’t know how to proceed, and it makes them more anxious, which in turn leads to mistakes,” said Dolph. “So practicing relaxation techniques is vital to being a guardian.”

  I had never thought of relaxing before. Mom and Dad would just say “calm down” when Emily and I had an argument, but I took it to mean “stop fighting.” I didn’t ever think of actually relaxing. I knew now I didn’t have a choice. I had to stay calm. I wondered what my family would think of the calm Aly.

  “Now that you have calmed down, let me tell you the benefits of ‘poofing’ as you call it,” Grandma said with a smile. “You already know one of the most important ones. You can make enemies go back in time and not remember meeting you or the elves. We choose not to fight enemies unless there’s no other way. The guardian’s power can usually control a situation.

  “You asked earlier what would happen if you were out of town and the elves needed you. Well, I’ve gone into a bathroom in a mall, locked myself in a stall and then traveled to the elves. You now have the ability to transport yourself to the village at any sign of trouble. You also have the ability to travel back in time, so you can reappear back at the time you left. Nobody will know you went anywhere. Cool, huh?”

  I started laughing at that. “So I can be in two places at once?” This is so cool!

  “Basically, but the timing isn’t always completely accurate. That’s why you always need to be in a place where nobody can see you. You may come back a few seconds later or sooner. So you can’t just leave in the middle of a hockey game without others possibly detecting your movements. Always use wise judgment and find a discreet place. We’ll be working on this in your upcoming training so your presence in different destinations is timed properly.

  “The main thing we need to work on is your controlling your thoughts. Right now, unintentionally, what you think about may become reality—like wanting to go home. One way of controlling this is to never repeat a thought more than once. A repeated request usually indicates it’s your command. So unless you want something to happen, only think about it once. Now this is also important: don’t wish for things. If you wish you were never chosen to be a guardian, for instance, that status would disappear. It may be something you feel at times, but think of how defenseless you’d leave the elves in the village. Always remember there’s nobody to take your place. If you wish you could see London, you may just appear there. Do you get how thought control works now?”

  “Yes, but what if I mess up? I don’t want to be poofing all over or poofing others!”

  “That’s why we’re going to work hard on this. Just like ignoring creatures, you can master this too. For now, I’ll be there to help you come back if need be,” said Grandma.

  “Today is just about relaxation,” said Dolph. “I’m going to teach you different techniques, both old and new. We’re going to find the best one for you. In order to move forward in any training session now, relaxation is the key. Have you ever wondered how your grandmother stays so calm? It’s because she knows how to keep herself that way.”

  “Once in a while I can still get anxious,” Grandma said, “but it’s more about being protective. I worry about my human and creature families, but I’ve learned not to dwell on negative outcomes in situations. Instead I focus on positive ones. My relaxation method is to reflect on my childhood memories with my parents. Remembering the love that was and is still always there makes me relax and fills me with happiness.”

  Dolph introduced me to forms of meditation: focusing on such things as favorite smells like a flower or cinnamon roll, a favorite memory, a song or music beat, and laughter. The last three worked the best for me. My memory was the feeling I always had on the ice rink, the music was the guitar songs my dad taught me, and the laughter could be a current joke or one remembered from the past. Dol
ph was pleased I found several methods that worked for me. He felt I didn’t need to narrow it down to one. Whatever mood I was in would be calmed by any of them. So the first hurdle had been cleared.

  By the time Dolph left, it was already dark outside. Grandma had made up the bed in her spare bedroom for me. She told me to focus on my relaxing thoughts as I fell asleep. I knew Lina and Berg would be close by me in the bedroom all night, which gave me comfort. I think my mind was exhausted, because I fell asleep right away.

  Chapter 18

  I awoke to the coo of a morning dove outside the window. I was relieved to know I had stayed put all night long, or I assumed I did because I had no memory of being somewhere else. As I got out of bed, I could hear Grandma singing a church hymn in the kitchen. Sometimes I thought her songs put her in a happy mood.

  Dolph arrived just as I entered the kitchen. Grandma had made a giant batch of Swedish pancakes, which made sense when I saw Lina and Berg were also joining us. Most were regular size, but there were a few the size of a quarter for Dolph. We all eagerly put lingonberry jam on top of our pancakes and enjoyed the tart berry flavor.

  “Alice, you’re spoiling us,” said Dolph. “I haven’t had lingonberries in anything since the last time you made me a meal. It’s the taste of our old world and childhood.” Dolph enjoyed another mouthful.

  “I thought we all needed extra energy today, and a good Swedish breakfast seemed like the key to that. Plus I knew everyone would like this meal. Lunt and I have not been successful yet in growing lingonberries, but the jam is sold in the grocery stores. For some of the old recipes I grew up with, I substitute cranberries at times, with the berries’ flavor being so similar.”