Norway

This story came about when we went up on a chairlift in Arctic Norway, July 2011. As we left the station at the top, Paul almost stood on a beautiful little lemming which quickly leapt away and hid.

The Deadly Shadow

Lammie's nose twitched but he didn't stir. A few more grains of dust floated down, one very small one finding its way right inside his right nostril. Lammie gave a violent sneeze and curled up tight into a ball. As ever more dust began to fall, he gave a groan. Why did Algie always have to do his morning workout just above his bedroom? It was not as if he didn't know, Lammie had moaned at him often enough but did Algie care? Not a bit.

Lammie rolled over and stretched out. The rest of the gang were still asleep but Lammie was now wide awake. He ran his sharp little claws through his whiskers, cleaning the dust out of them, and then trying to ignore the relentless shaking of the ground, he started to groom his beautiful golden fur. He made it a ritual each morning remembering how his mother had taught him. 'Groom the golden fur first, then move onto the velvety black areas, finally wash your beautiful white face paying particular attention to the whiskers.'

You might think from this that Lammie was an obedient, well behaved young lemming pup, but you would be wrong. He was just very vain and proud of his beautiful coat. In every other way, if there was a wrong way to do something then Lammie would find it.

Take this morning for instance, all the other pups were fast asleep curled up in a white, black and gold ball of fur, but not Lammie. Later he would say it was all Algie's fault but he could have gone back to sleep. He knew the giant shadows must be still and silent because Algie would not be doing his workout if they were not, and hadn't Lammie been told over and over again, 'Don't ever go outside when the giant shadows are still'.

 

Life was very difficult on the mountain top. When the giant shadows were still it was beautiful, peaceful and quiet, apart from Algie's morning workout. Why did he have to be such a fitness freak, or if he had to, why couldn't he do it over the other side of the mountain? Lammie was only allowed out when the giant shadows were moving. His parents insisted it wasn't safe to be out when they were still. This made no sense to Lammie at all. The giant shadows creaked and groaned, stopped and started and they brought with them the Big Thumpers. It was impossible to know when and where the Big Thumpers would land so Lammie and the gang would have to scurry this way and that way to make sure they weren't squashed by them. One of the first lessons the pups learnt when they first left the burrow was where all the other burrow entrances were so they could dive out of the way of the Big Thumpers. One day, when they were particularly bored, the gang had built an obstacle course to practice their getaway skills. Lammie always won taking the biggest and most daring leaps, twisting in mid-air so he could quickly change direction.

So how could it be safer to be out then? Now, apart from Algie, it was quiet and still, no Big Thumpers to look out for. Lammie found his little white feet moving closer and closer to the burrows entrance. He stopped and sniffed. The air felt cool and fresh and he could smell the scent of his favourite flowers. He really didn't believe it could be dangerous to be out now. As his feet reached the mouth of the burrow, he blinked his little black eyes as the rays of the morning sun found their way through the leaves of the downy willow that stood guard over the burrow. It must be a conspiracy he decided. It wasn't really dangerous, it was just the adults saying that so they could have first pick of all the freshly opened flowers before the pups were up and about. Well this morning he was going to find the best, freshest gentian there was. No stories of deadly shadows were going to scare him.

But the first thing he was going to do was give Algie a thorough talking to! Algie was in the final stages of his workout, the lying on your back in the sun and rolling slowly from side to side, which made it much easier for Lammie to get his attention. Having leapt onto the tip of one velvety coated antler, disappointed that no-one was there to see as it was a spectacular leap with a double twist in the middle, he ran swiftly down to sit nestled by a huge ear before Algie could shake his head and throw him off.

Then began a conversation which had been repeated so many times before . . . . I won't bore you with the details . . . . until Algie had had enough and a violent shake of his head sent Lammie tumbling to the ground. Unperturbed, Lammie righted, himself, made sure his whiskers were straight and then scampered off in search of the perfect gentian. 

With the giant shadows still, the mountain top was so quiet and peaceful. Lammie jumped onto a boulder and sat feeling the warmth of the sun on his golden back and listened to all the sounds that were now so familiar to him. Just below him he could hear the silvery tinkle of the water as it laughingly found new ways of running through the patches of star heather and lichens that clothed the ancient rocks in its path.

 Beyond this he could hear the thunder roar. He had been told that this was also the water as it leapt and dived off the edge of the mountain but he didn't believe it. How could such beautiful, tinkling laughter turn into such a thunderous roar? He knew it had to be a monstrous beast to make that much noise so that was one area he had no difficulty keeping away from.

He watched, contented, as his little friends the pollen workers buzzed busily around him, tidying up one flower after another, leaving them shiny clean taking all the pollen dust with them in sacks which they carried on their back legs. He admired their beautiful, furry coats, the black and gold ones were his favourites of course, but he quite liked the orangey red ones too. He often wondered what he would look like if he had orangey red patches as well. Maybe one day he would try and see.

His stomach gave a long, low rumble reminding him that he was on a search for the perfect gentian flower for breakfast. As he stood, ready for another amazing leap, and once again regretting the gang weren't there to see, an angry voice yelled, “Look out you clumsy oaf.” startled, Lammie looked down. Just where his foot was about to land in order to launch him into orbit sat Rhea, her front legs waving angrily at him whilst her multitudinous eyes looked in dismay at her tattered web. She had spent the whole of the previous day perfecting it and now look at it. Lammie was genuinely sorry as he was rather fond of Rhea and he knew how many hours of work she had put into building it. Still, no use crying over spilt milk. Lammie apologised and then was off again, scrambling and leaping across the mountain slopes. He skidded to a halt as he spotted a patch of shiny black berries. He couldn't resist crow berries and so settled down to eat.

A sudden shrill chirruping made him look up just in time to see Wheatie land on a rock close by. He looked very agitated, both his head and his tail bobbing up and down. He was shouting, “Look out”, over and over again, hopping up and down and then he took off flying very close to the ground until he disappeared. Lammie looked around him, puzzled, and then heard his father frantically calling his name. He saw him bounding across from the gentian patch, screaming at him to hide.

Lammie froze as the sun was extinguished. All around him became dark and cold. His paws began to tremble as he realised this was the Deadly Shadow. It was no fairy story, it was real and it was about to get him. Lammie cowered down trying to make himself as small as possible. Then an amazing thing happened, lemmings began to pour out of every burrow entrance on the mountainside and formed a moving carpet of gold and black fur moving this way and then that until Lammie felt dizzy just watching it.

The Deadly Shadow halted, confused. It hovered just above Lammie moving its head and bright shiny eyes but keeping otherwise perfectly still. Lammie could see the cruel curve of its sharp beak just above his head. Lammie's father, having nearly reached him, screamed at him to run. Lammie took a deep breath and dived for the nearest burrow. It was his favourite burrow, cloud hollow, a rocky shelf covered with big juicy cloud berries. In the confusion, the Deadly Shadow didn't know which bundle of fur to go for. It mad a dive for Lammie's father and got one claw caught in his father's fur. Lammie watched in horror as his father was lifted off the ground. The Deadly Shadow hadn't managed to get a proper grip so the fur slid through his claw. Lammie's father plummeted to earth, fortunately landing on a thick pink carpet of moss campion. The Deadly Shadow made a spine chilling call as it looked for another lemming to catch, it had a nest of youngsters waiting for their breakfast but the mountainside was empty, still, silent. Underground everyone held their breath, no-one daring to speak, until the all clear was given, the Deadly Shadow had gone.

Lammie crawled away to his bed to hide, horrified at the thought that because of him his father had very nearly been lost. In the next passageway he could hear his mother and father arguing. His father felt he should be severely punished but his mother was adamant that he already had been. She knew he would never forget that day for the rest of his life. As they quietly argued, Lammie fell asleep.

A short while later, Lammie awoke, the horror of the attack swamping him. Lammie's nose began to twitch, what was that gorgeous smell? He slowly opened his eyes and there, laid neatly by the side of his nest was a perfect gentian flower . . . . .

·         Giant shadows – chairs on the chairlift

·         Big Thumpers  - humans

This second story came about when I found a small broken branch of a tree, with the bark still attached, but with a deep jade green coloured centre. Alongside this on the path was a large area of reindeer hair, as if an animal had been shorn where it lay. I decided to keep the same characters as the first story. The Tengmalm owl came into the story as when we were in the grass roofed hotel, I heard a strange owl calling and by referring to the book, decided it could only be a Tengmalm. We then learnt that there was a Tengmalm living in a nest box which the hotel owner took Paul to see. Willowherb flowers grew everywhere but it was interesting to find clumps of a very pale pink variety, which were woven into the story.

The Magic Jade Tree

“Mr. Tengmalm! Mr. Tengmalm! Wake up! O do wake up Mr. Tengmalm. No! Don’t eat me! Listen to what I have to say first.”

“Then can I eat you?”

“Well I would rather you didn’t!”

Lammie jumped back nervously as two piercing yellow eyes glared down at him from a hole in the tree but it was the sharp beak that worried him the most.

“We need your help, Princess Tamasin is dying. The Queen said the only one who could help her was you. Algie is the quickest runner we have, he works out every day, but he can’t climb trees so I said I would come too but I do hope you won’t eat me.”

Lammie backed slowly away along his tiny thin branch as a set of shiny black talons appeared at the edge of the hole, closely followed by another set. The vicious looking beak began to rearrange the soft downy feathers between the sharp pointed talons. The sight of all this was too much for Lammie and he began to tremble from the tip of his little nose all the way down to his little white toes. He closed his eyes convinced he would never see his burrow again. Two powerful wings began to flap, the wind from them blowing Lammie right off his little branch. He was falling, faster and faster, his four tiny white paws scrabbling at the air vainly trying to grasp it. A rush of dark brown feathers appeared beneath him and Lammie landed on a beautiful feather bed. He clung on desperately as Mr. Tengmalm flew high above the trees. Not daring to look down, he fixed his eyes on one beautiful white spot amongst the brown feathers of Mr. Tengmalm’s back.

After hours of clinging on for dear life Mr. Tengmalm landed, it was minutes really but felt like hours. Lammie quickly scrambled down to the beautiful, safe, still ground, his poor legs trembling that much he could hardly stand.

Lammie

Mr. Tengmalm turned and looked at him.

“I won’t eat you this time, I don’t have the time and I’m really not hungry but if I ever see you again I will eat you.”

At this Lammie was off diving head first into the nearest burrow he could find and he hid in his nest for the rest of the day. In one short day he had been bare backed riding on a reindeer and had piloted an open topped owl.

Queen Yerienna was beside herself with worry as she paced up and down outside Princess Tamasin’s room. Algie had returned to say that Lammie had arrived safely at Mr. Tengmalm’s tree but whether he had been successful in enlisting the help of the wise old owl, no-one knew.

 A flurry of feathers crashing through the open window announced the arrival of Mr. Tengmalm. Queen Yerienna rushed over to him. Beyond him could be seen the silvery river twisting its way through the deep wooded gorge. The palace stood at the top of the gorge, the highest and biggest tree of all bedecked in lanterns and fairy lights, its branches entwined to provide safe walkways and terraces for all of the Queen’s subjects.

Princess Tamasin had been out visiting one of the water nymph families down by the silvery river. She had given her chaperone the slip as for once she wanted to be by herself, to feel completely free which any princess knows is never allowed. Whilst crossing the river on the crystal bridge she had been spied by the hobgoblin that crept up behind her and cast an evil spell on her. The sound of her falling carried on the air, a silvery tinkling echo which was heard by the water nymphs before the hobgoblin could make off with her. Very sadly, the water nymphs carried her back to the palace where she had been laid on her beautiful rose petal bed and Mr. Tengmalm had been summonsed.

Being too large to fit through the Princess’ door, he bent down and peered through. Slowly he stood and shook his head.

“The only way to cure her is with a potion made from the Magic Jade Tree mixed with pollen from the Pale Pink Willow Herb and grated root from the Gelly plant. No one knows where the Magic Jade Tree grows; it may just be nothing more than a myth.”

All the forest creatures were gathered outside. They were all very fond of the little elf princess as she was always so kind and helpful to everyone. Willow flew timidly forward and landed on the window ledge.

“I can get the Pale Pink Willow Herb flowers; I pass them every day,

and so off the little tit flew returning very quickly with three beautiful flower stems.

“I know where the Gelly Plant is”, said one of the Pollen Workers,

“I go to its flowers everyday but I can’t dig up the root, I’m not big enough.”

“I can dig”, said Bruin, the little bear cub.

“Take me there and I will get it.”

So off they both went.

“That’s all very well,” said Mr. Tengmalm,“but without a branch of the Magic Jade Tree it is all of no use,” and with that he hopped onto the window ledge and flew away.

Queen Yerienna buried her head in her hands and began to cry, quietly, she was a Queen after all.

“Please don’t cry,” said Algie, putting his nose through the window.

“I might be able to help. I know where the Magic Jade Tree is, it does exist. I saw it in a dream when I had eaten too many ripe bear berries last year. Everyone says it was just a dream but I know it’s true. I will bring a branch back.”

The Queen waited all that day and all the next day for Algie to return. The Queen’s physicians had collected all the pollen from the Pale Pink Willow Herb and they had grated the root of the Gelly Plant. The Pollen Worker’s job was to collect all the pollen from the Angelica Plants and so he had had no difficulty showing Bruin where to dig. Everything was ready. They just needed the branch from the Magic Jade Tree.

Lammie had recovered from his terrifying day and was now concerned about Algie. It was so quiet each morning, no dust alarm clock, no shaking ground, no Algie doing his morning workout. Lammie wandered down to the water terrace. He loved to watch the water nymphs dancing and diving through the crashing waters that disappeared under the table rocks.

As he was sitting right at the edge of the water enjoying the feel of the water spray trickling down his nose, he heard a loud crash and a groan on the path behind him. There on the floor lay Algie, a broken tree branch in his mouth. His legs were slayed out in all directions, his hair was all matted and full of burrs and his handsome face was all scratched and bleeding. He looked exhausted. He laid the broken branch gently on the floor and looked up unhappily at Lammie.

“I’ve broken it, I’m so clumsy I have broken it and now the Princess will die.”

Lammie gently pulled the branch onto the soft grass. The branch had been cracked and a piece fell off the end of it. The branch looked just like any other boring piece of branch until you looked at the inside of it and saw it was a beautiful deep jade green colour. Lammie looked at the piece of branch that was left.

“Don’t worry Algie, there is plenty left. It doesn’t matter about that small piece. But look at the state of you. You can’t go before the Queen looking like that.”

He quickly ran over to a rotten piece of log lying by the river bank and began tapping it with his front paws. His tapping grew louder and louder until suddenly a pair of sharp black pincers appeared out of a hole followed by a large black shiny body.

“Who is making that awful noise? Be off with you.”

“Sorry to disturb you Lucas, but we need your help.”

He quickly told Lucas the story about Princess Tamasin and explained his need. Somehow Algie had to be smartened up and quickly.

 Lucas disappeared back into his hole and a few moments later he was back with six more fierce looking stag beetles. They marched over to Algie and began moving quickly over him using their sharp black pincers to give him a short back and sides. Standing back to admire their work they told Algie to stand up. Algie was truly exhausted but struggling, he managed to get one leg firmly placed under each corner and then stood, elegant and sleek, the floor covered with tangled coarse hair.

He thanked Lucas and his troop of stag beetles, lowered his head so that Lammie could climb on board and once more take up position holding tightly onto his ear, then gently lifting the remaining branch with his mouth . . . . . they were off.

Lammie held on for dear life until they reached the palace. The waiting animals saw them coming and a loud cheer went up as Algie gently dropped the Magic Jade Tree branch through the window. All the creatures settled down again to wait. Inside the palace, the physicians were hard at work but finally the potion was ready. A silver bowl filled with the steaming jade potion was taken in to the Princess’ room. The Queen sat down by her bed and gently lifted the Princess’ head. Using a spoon carved from a silvery moon beam, she slowly dripped jade potion into the Princess’ mouth. For a few seconds nothing happened and then the Princess gave a small cough and opened her eyes.

Lammie, who had climbed in through the window and crept in and hidden under the Princess’ bed, ran out of the room to pass on the good news to the animals. Once again a loud cheer rang out through the woods.

If you had gone down to the woods that night you would have seen an amazing sight. The trees were bedecked with lights, the glow worms were on overtime, and the crickets worked all night until their legs were so sore they couldn’t move. It was the biggest party ever seen in the wood. Seated at the head table with the Queen and the happy Princess was Lammie and Algie.