The Reindeer Girl (8 page)

Chapter Nine

“Can we sit and rest for a bit?” Erika murmured. She was shivering and pale, and Lotta hated the way her cheeks looked pinched with cold under her hat.

The two girls moved into the shelter of the trees, away from the rushing sound of the river and sat down, huddled together. Karl trotted over and nestled against Lotta’s side, his head in her lap. Flower watched from a few paces away as the two girls slowly nibbled some of the dried meat they had brought with them. Then at last she came over to join them, lying down next to Erika, who leaned against her, grateful for her warmth.

A few hours later, Lotta woke up with a start, disturbed by a rustling in the trees. She sat up quickly, but it seemed to be only a red squirrel, peering down
at her from the branches, his tufted ears twitching. Lotta took a deep breath, and then shifted uncomfortably in her damp
gakti
. She still felt cold, but better than before, less shaky and scared.

It was getting dark now – not very, but the light was starting to seep away, and the shadows of the trees were lengthening.

“Erika, wake up,” Lotta said, reaching over and gently shaking her cousin. “We should go. It’s late. We have to try and get back tonight. Mamma and Aunt Astri will be worried about us.” Maybe they would have set out to find them, Lotta wondered, feeling guilty. The girls had held up the journey to the calving grounds. But Lotta still felt sure they couldn’t have done anything else.

Erika sat up, yawning, but her cheeks
were pinkish again and she’d lost that awful chilled look. “Oh, we must have slept for ages.” She struggled to her feet. “We have to go.”

The girls strapped on their skis, and Flower nudged Karl to his feet. Then she set off through the trees again, with the girls walking on either side of her.

“Do you think she still knows where she’s going?” Lotta asked.

Erika sighed. “I hope so…”

They trekked on, chilled and weary, until the light faded completely. Karl suddenly stopped, with a miserable little honk. He stood behind them, hooves planted in the snow in a determined sort of way.

“Come on, Karl,” Erika called, trying to sound cheerful.

“I think he’s saying he’s not going any further,” Lotta said. “Maybe we should camp out until morning. I know we walked in the dark last night, but then we had the trail to follow. If we go wrong now, we could get really lost.”

We are really lost
, a small voice inside her whispered, but she didn’t say it out loud. “Look, we could camp over there.” Not far away, a huge tree had fallen, and its roots made a patch of shelter, big enough for the two girls to curl up in and rest. Karl snuggled in with them, and Flower lay down outside, like a guard dog.

Lotta curled herself round Karl and Erika, and stared out at the dark forest. The moon wasn’t as bright as it had been the night before, and everything seemed much more frightening. What if they
never found their way back to the rest of the herd? Lotta was almost sure now that she was here because of Karl and Flower, to make sure that they got home safely. She had no idea how, or why. Or how she was going to get home herself. Surrounded as she was by darkness, and small, quiet noises, her everyday life seemed very far away.

“Lotta… It’s morning.”

Lotta rolled over, rubbing at her damp face, and Karl jumped away with a startled squeak.

Erika giggled. “He was licking your cheek. I let him, I thought it might be a nice way to wake up.”

“Uurgh!” Lotta groaned, as she scrambled to her feet. “I’m cold right through. I don’t think I’ve properly got warm since the river.”

“Hopefully you’ll warm up when we’re walking. We have to go, look. Flower’s set off already.”

Flower was several paces away, loudly grunting to Karl to follow her. She looked over at Erika and Lotta, as if to tell them
that they’d better hurry up, too.

“We’ll get back to the rest of the herd today,” Lotta said, as they set off on their skis. She was trying to sound sure.

“I really hope so,” Erika said. “They must be so worried about us, my mamma and yours. Especially now we’ve been away overnight. And they can’t go on to the calving ground until they’ve found us. They’ll have gone to look for us, but it won’t be easy to find our tracks, not with the way the herd churn up the snow.”

“I suppose I shouldn’t have made us go,” Lotta said in a small voice.

But Erika shook her head. “No. We had to. And anyway, you didn’t make me. We couldn’t have left Flower behind.”

Lotta smiled at her gratefully, and then she gasped. “Erika, look!”

They were joining a wider path between the trees, and Flower was looking out along it, as if she was considering the way. Then she bent her head down, snuffling confidently, as though she’d caught a scent she knew. The girls hurried after her, and stared at the path – at the churned-up snow, covered in hoofprints, and marked here and there by the thick wooden runners of the sledges.

“We found them! The trail!” Lotta and Erika hugged each other excitedly.

“All we have to do now is follow it, and we’ll find them!” Erika squealed.

“I wonder how far we’ve got to go,” Lotta said, peering around at the trees. “I don’t remember this part of the forest. It must be a bit we went through when I was asleep on the sledge.”

“Lotta, hush a moment.” Erika caught her arm, her fingers pinching, and Lotta stopped talking, suddenly frightened.

“I heard something – oh, there it is again!” Erika’s eyes widened with fear as the noise floated out across the forest, and Lotta let out a terrified gasp. She had never heard that sound before, not for real. But she knew at once what it was.

The howl of a wolf…

“Can you see them?” Erika asked, looking frantically from side to side.

“Them?” Lotta faltered.

“They always hunt in packs,” Erika told her grimly. “They’ll be after Karl – he’s the smallest and weakest. Easy prey.”

Flower seemed to know this, too. She had nudged Karl close in to her side, and her head was lowered, ready to use her antlers to protect her baby.

Lotta pulled out her knife, but she knew they would never be able to fight off a whole pack of wolves, or even a small hunting group. “Look, if we keep going, we might get back to the herd before they’re brave enough to attack us.”

Erika nodded, getting her knife out, too. “It’s our only chance. Come on, Flower.” She grabbed Flower’s antlers,
and the girls pulled her forward, hurrying along the trail. Karl scurried beside them, quiet and frightened. He had never seen wolves, either, but he must have been able to smell that they were dangerous.

“I can see one,” Lotta gasped, a few minutes later. “Over there, look.”

A thin, dog-like shape was slinking through the trees alongside them. It was whiter than Lotta had expected, and the sun shone on its fur. If she hadn’t been running away from it, she would have thought it was beautiful. Instead, it was the most frightening thing she had ever seen.

She strode along on her skis, trying desperately to go faster, but the wolf kept pace with them easily, drawing closer between the trees. Soon Lotta could see
two more of the pack at its heels.

“They’re on this side, too,” Erika told her, panting. “Oh! Look out!” She shoved Lotta to the side as one of the wolves darted in, trying to snap at Flower.

The reindeer let out a snarling grunt, and lowered her antlers, charging at the wolf, who rolled quickly out of the way. But there were five or six of them now – Lotta couldn’t be quite sure, they were so fast. And they dashed in, one after the other, snapping at Flower’s legs and even leaping for her neck.

Lotta seized Karl, holding him close, and stretching out her shaking hand with the knife. She had no idea how to use it, even, but perhaps the wolves had seen hunters before. They seemed to be wary of the girls and their weapons. For the
moment, anyway.

Four wolves were circling Flower now, darting in and out, snapping here and there as she turned, grunting and charging at them, antlers down. Then all at once they rushed forward, two of them leaping for her back at the same time. One of them tore a scratch down Flower’s shoulder, and she screamed and galloped away, vanishing between the trees.

“Flower!” Lotta called. But she was gone.

Karl let out a despairing little whinny as his mother disappeared, and Lotta sobbed with fear. Two of the wolves were still left, circling widely around the two girls and the little reindeer. Clearly they thought that Karl would be easier pickings than his mother.

“Stand back to back!” Erika gasped, holding out her knife, and Lotta nodded, pressing her back against her cousin’s, Karl trembling in her arms. She couldn’t let the wolves have the calf. Not after they had tried so hard to keep him alive. It was why she was here!

There were more wolves now – the whole pack was back again, creeping closer and closer.

“I think Flower outran them…” Erika muttered. “They’ve come back for Karl. And us, maybe. If they’re really hungry.”

What would happen if I was eaten by a wolf in a dream?
Lotta wondered. If it wasn’t a dream, she didn’t even want to think about it. She gritted her teeth, and tried to stare back at the circling wolves. She mustn’t look afraid.