The hidden valley

Photo: Magnus

Nemiran! You can’t be serious? Hilda’s voice was shrill with anxiety and incredulity.

It’s been a week since that horrible afternoon. The fateful day that, in one brutal swipe, took Piova’s parents and grandpa and left Nemiran maimed. Piova remembered Andreas rushing into her room and a few moments later they had apparated to Aunt Hilda’s living room. ‘Look after her’ Andreas said, and before anyone could say anything he had apparated again. Deep into the night the grown-ups whispered and walked about nervously. Cooped up with Einar in his room, Piova sensed something was horribly wrong, but she remained calm. ‘Where’s mommy’ she had asked when they got down for supper. ‘She isn’t well dear, we will visit her soon’ Aunt Hilda said calmly but even her affectionate voice was heavy.

‘Nemiran, I understand’ she continued now in her soft, calm, voice; ‘You want to hold on to the only bit of family you are left with.’ ‘But would that be good for her?’ Nemiran sat silent and sullen for some moments, then he got up and went to the window overlooking the yard and watched Piova sitting there. ‘Fine’ he said after a while, ‘do whatever you think is good for her’ he mumbled without turning around.

Piova woke up to the sound of a strange thumping noise. Craning through the window, she saw Einar kicking a football against the wall. Occasionally he was trying to do some tricks with his feet or head and was failing miserably. After one such attempt, he gave the ball a mighty kick; it bounced off the wall and smacked him in the face, knocking him to the ground. Einar looked up to the sound of the giggle and cheerfully waved ‘Hi Piova.’ ‘Good morning’ Piova waved back.

It’s been a few weeks since she started living at Dragereir. It’s a nice place, oddly similar to her home; secluded, serene, wild, and filled with some nice people. It was quieter though without the jolly voice of her mother and the raucous of Uncle Nemiran. Though she doesn’t let anyone realize it, she misses her family. Aunt Hilda smells nice, Piova loves her hugs. But it’s not quite what it was with her mother. She doesn’t understand what exactly has happened, but she understands that she isn’t going to see her mommy, papa, and grandpa again.

The autumn ember had long been snuffed out and the winter spell was taking its hold all-around Dragereir. The mountains around them are now brown and bare, only the indomitable Pines are still flying their ever-green pennants. But even they have to start the day with snow crowns. The ridges already have their white crests and the slopes have ever-increasing patches of snow. The little valley at the mouth of the fiord is now soggy-brown and the fiord itself is now a blurry blue with lumps of dirty snow floating around. The mountain behind them dropped into a deep valley, more like a gorge, on the other side. It was spooky enough even during summer, and now it bears a desolate, foreboding look. The stream that snaked through is now barely a trickle waiting to be buried under deep snow and the web of cascades has already gone into hibernation under snow sheets high up in the mountain.

‘I wasn’t much older than Eindride, but definitely wasn’t as smart’ Grandpa Gabriel gave the older boy an indulging smile. The boy blushed a little at the generous praise. ‘I had this creepy feeling from the moment I started to climb down to that valley’ grandpa continued. And it grew and grew, as he climbed down, and down. Oh, how many countless times did he think about turning back; instead, after countless bruises & battering, he found himself on the valley floor. The valley was deep and narrow, the summer sun barely touched the floor and the eastern wall was still wrapped in its own shadow. ‘As if I weren’t foolish enough to get down to the valley, now I wanted to climb up the other side’ grandpa softly chuckled.

No sooner had he started to cross the clearing, than there was a soft howling of the wind. Only there wasn’t any wind, just a gentle breeze. By now Piova and Einar were clutching either arm of Eindride. ‘Oh, I was scared too’ grandpa admitted, ‘the hairs on my neck were standing up like the spikes of a hedgehog’ grandpa mused like it was the funniest experience of his life. But after a few moments, after nothing scary happened, his courage returned and he started to make way to the trees at the foot of the eastern wall. The wind howled again; the most deafening, blood-chilling scream you will ever hear. He had just enough wit to look up the mountain, and there, from a crack in the grey wall, something grey and huge was hurtling towards him.

‘I didn’t even realized that I have started to run, and scream’ grandpa laughed out loud. ‘I had barely reached the cover of the trees when the flames came roaring after me’ he added in a much somber tone. ‘Luckily the valley was too narrow for him to swoop too low, and he didn’t like to be on the ground. So he kept circling over the forest and threw his fireballs at random. I would have been roasted alive if just one of those caught me.’ grandpa gave a little smirk. ‘But I realized that it’s my only chance. I have to use the forest cover to reach as close to my home as possible and then run like there’s a dragon on my tail.’ Grandpa laughed out again but none of the kids thought it was funny.

Piova was practically hiding behind Eindride with her eyes peering over his shoulder. The boys weren’t faring much better. Gabriel started for home, scuttling from one tree to another, always throwing furtive looks at the sky. Although he could occasionally see the monster flying above, he didn’t come charging down. Finally, after a lot of climbing and running and a lot of tumbling and slipping, he was on the edge of the forest behind his house. He carefully scanned the sky but didn’t find any trace of the monster. So he took a deep breath and started running for the house. He was well clear of the forest he heard the horrible howl and turned his head just in time to see the flames rushing towards him. ‘Jump in the water’, said his father who had appeared from the house. Only then did Gabriel realize that his pants were on fire.

‘So I ran like my pants were on fire and jumped into the fjord’ grandpa chuckled heartily. ‘As I stood chest-deep in the water, I heard the dragon scream. Papa was sending one stunning spell after another and the monster was screaming in pain and fury. After taking a few hits, he flew back to his valley.’ ‘Then what happened?’ Eindride asked in a rather calm voice. ‘Then?’ grandpa mused for a bit. ‘Well, I got grounded till my burns got healed. Then I got grounded some more till I mastered the stunning spell well enough. Then I got grounded some more for being naughty.’