Winterfrost by Michelle Houts Page B

with her stomach. She drew in a long, deep breath and kept her eyes on the clouds ahead.
    Time stood still. Had she been flying an hour? A day? Or only a few minutes? She risked another quick peek down. No more winterfrost. They had left behind a winter wonderland and entered a dismal gray landscape. The sun, just as in the days before, was nowhere to be seen.
    Timelessness offered Bettina plenty of opportunity to think. What would this angry nisse Ulf be like? Bettina imagined she might have to bargain for Pia’s return, but what did she have to bargain with? She came with only the backpack Pernilla had provided. Back at home, the Larsens had very little that others didn’t have. There were some of the latest electronic gadgets, computers, and such, but Bettina had a hard time imagining that these would be of much use to a nisse.
    The Larsens owned a few antiques, passed down from Farfar’s family. One treasured heirloom was a shiny gold pocket watch that had belonged to Farfar’s grandfather. Perhaps a nisse was like a leprechaun, taking interest in objects of value, like gold. But the book hadn’t mentioned such a trait, and having met Gammel, Pernilla, and Hagen and having been in their home, Bettina was doubtful that gold would appeal to any nisse. Even a wayward nisse.
    Up ahead, the empty beet and hay fields and forests became fewer, and small clusters of buildings appeared. Bettina took a deep breath and looked straight down. Below her, she spied a church steeple and a grain elevator. They were flying over a town. Buildings were packed tightly along curving streets that led right up to what looked like water. Bettina sat up straight and strained to see past the goose’s neck. Sure enough, on the horizon Bettina spotted boats. Lots of boats of all sizes as well as ships crawling into the harbor. Bettina knew where they were. But the goose showed no signs of descending. They wouldn’t be landing in this familiar coastal town. Bettina and the goose were flying directly for the sea.
    Many hours seemed to pass with nothing but steel-gray clouds above and a matching sea below. Bettina’s eyes grew heavy, but she was afraid to sleep for fear she’d loosen her hold on the goose’s neck and tumble from the sky. Far down in the sea, she could see the Askø ferry, and she had a hunch they were following it to the small island north of Lolland. It made sense that anyone trying to avoid people would hide out on Askø, especially in the wintertime. In the summer, the island was popular with tourists packed into summerhouses. But in the winter, Askø was nearly deserted.
    Sure enough, just as the Askø shoreline came into view, the Pedersens’ goose started her slow and steady descent toward land.

It was high noon when the Pedersens’ goose set down lightly on the icy island of Askø, but the sun was nowhere to be seen. There was no winterfrost here. No magical winter wonderland. Just steel gray and cold. By the time Bettina slid from the goose’s slick white back, freezing rain had begun to fall and the wind drove every drop angrily toward her face. They had flown over the ferry dock, over the dock house, and over the lonely summerhouses that occupied the shore. They had flown into the heart of the small island, where Bettina could not see one sign of humanity whatsoever. A perfect place for an unhappy nisse to live. But where, exactly?
    “Well?” Bettina turned to her feathery tour guide. “What now?”
    The goose honked once and took three running steps. Should she run after the goose? Perhaps she was showing Bettina which way to go next. But before Bettina had time to decide, the Pedersens’ goose flapped her wings several times and took off toward Lolland.
    “Wait!” Bettina yelled into the wind. “Don’t leave!”
    But the big white goose never glanced back.
    “Thanks for the ride,” Bettina muttered.
    She was getting used to her new state of tininess, but even so, she found the enormity of everything