Authors: Katherine Langrish
Troll Fell (20 page)
He blinked. There seemed to be a little whirlwind
blowing about the yard â a little, swirling column of
snow, playing with the fox. He rubbed his eyes. Or was
it a little, wispy, grey creature with big hands and feet,
scampering wildly in the snow beside the fox?
“Nis?” he called. There was a scurry of snow.
Something ran across the yard, kicking little spurts of
snow from its heels. The fox sat down suddenly and
turned its sharp face towards him, panting as though it
was laughing. Something jumped on to the mill roof. A
large chunk of snow flumped off the eaves on to his head
and shoulders, and went down his neck.
“Stop it!” Peer yelped, laughing and wriggling his
shoulders. A cross little voice muttered above his head:
“They all forgets the poor Nis!”
“Nis!” said Peer firmly and kindly, “I haven't
forgotten you. Listen. You don't have to stay in the cold
mill. I'm living up at Ralf Eiriksson's farm now. Please
come too! We'd love to have you in the house. There'll
be hot groute with butter every day. I promise!”
He heard no reply. But the wispy little wind whirled
itself on to the fox's back, and the white fox straightened
out and went streaking out of the yard and over the
wooden bridge.
Peer followed its tracks in the snow all the way home,
grinning to himself. The Nis was wasting no time!
Hilde greeted him at the farmhouse door.
“Suppertime!” she called. “And it's a funny thing, but the
floor seems to have swept itself in the last half-hour, and
the logs have stacked themselves neatly, and it didn't
seem to take half as long for the kettle to boil. I think
your Nis has come home!”
Gudrun peeped over her shoulder. “It's like magic!”
she told him in an awed whisper. “At least â I suppose
that's what it is, really. It's a marvellous help, Peer! I hope
it stays here. What do you say it likes to eat?” And before
she sat down she poured out a full bowl of groute,
carefully stirring in the butter, and set it on the warm
hearthstone. As a final touch she spooned in some honey.
From then on, the Nis was positively spoilt!
That evening, and for many more to come, they
listened spellbound to one another's stories. Peer and
Hilde had much to tell of the wonders they had seen
under Troll Fell. Eirik spun the tale of how he and
Gudrun had struggled down to the fjord, of their despair
at finding the village deserted, and their joy at
discovering the longship. He made such a good job of it
that Gudrun herself shook her head and declared, while
they laughed at her, “What an adventure!”
But the best and the newest story of all was Ralf's.
With his arm round Gudrun and the little ones on his
knee, he told them more and more about the green
forests at the other end of the world, of the dark-haired
people who spoke a strange language, of the bright
feathers in their hair, of their long houses built deep in
the woods. And he told of the long journey home.
“Will you ever go back?” asked Hilde curiously.
Gudrun clutched Ralf 's hand defensively, shaking her
head. Ralf paused a long moment and sighed.
“East, west; home's best,” he said at last. “But who
knows? It's a wonderful land out there, Hilde. A
wonderful land.”
First published in hardback in Great Britain by
HarperCollins
Children'sBooks
in 2004
HarperCollins
Children'sBooks
is an imprint of HarperCollins
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Text copyright © Katherine Langrish 2004
Illustrations by Tim Stevens and David Wyatt 2004
The author and illustrators assert the moral right to be
identified as the author and illustrators of the work.
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ePub edition June 2008 ISBN- 9780007285655
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