ASTRID

Chapter 8 Fairy Evening

We are walking in a single file using a forest track. The thick mist is seen between low bushes and trees' roots. It is winding like white snakes under our feet, and it is steadily getting colder, and I am shivering in my light pyjamas with a print that is too shameful and childish for a girl who is almost eleven years old.

The sky is mackerel: a periwinkle grey background with dark blue stripes of the evening clouds. Unfortunately, having made several steps forward, I can't see it through the intermingled branches of oaks, maples, ash-trees and thick paws of firs and larches.

There is no sound of lively wind, woodpecker's merry drumming or cheerful songs of tiny foresters: just the rustles of twigs and last year leaves under our hasty feet that are walking quickly through the enchanted forest.

Nina is sitting on my shoulder again; her warm fluffy tail is like a perfect scarf around my neck. I wish I can turn into a small animal with some nice fur like a chipmunk or a harvest mouse and rest on someone's shoulder, for I'm really cold and tired.

"Well hello, dear!" Astrid greets someone, but I can't see whom she is talking to, for my aunt is leading the party, and Lev tails the procession.

"Greetings, my fair lady Astrid! I am immensely pleased that you have found your lovely kins," says a voice that I have already heard somewhere.

I'm tiptoeing around in the dark trying to see the owner of the voice over Billy's shoulder.

"I know him!" I whisper to Billy when I am able to see at last. "This strange man wanted to be my forest guide!"

"He asked me about the same," Billy whispers back, "but I threatened to call the police."

"Girls, meet Leshi! He's a forest spirit." Astrid steps back to allow the tiny man to be seen in deem forest light.

"We have already met," Billy and I reluctantly chip in the conversation.

The hare-skin man is scratching his weird twiggy ear, tilting his head like a dog, "I've seen a man in disguise the other day, fair lady," he says to Astrid. "I don't know him now, but he does seem suspicious. I assume thou, my fairy lady, must wist about him and be aware of the danger that might the outsider bring to you and your maiden kin."

"Has he left anything?" asks Prince Erik.

"The man was immensely precocious and kept at a discreet distance. But he can't beat an old cunning hare with all his childish tricks, twists, and turns!" I initially think that a duck is quacking, but then I understand that it is the way the tiny man laughs.

With quacking giggles, Leshi takes a simple pen out of his hairy hare coat and gives it to the young man.

"I know this smell. I felt it on the porch last night," says Lev, having sniffed the plastic ball pen.

"Any ideas?" asks Astrid.

He tosses his head, "The stranger is not from around here. Do you think he could send the cloud of bat shifters? Leshi, did you smell any magic in the outlander?" he looks down, but the hare creature has already disappeared.

"Left without saying "goodbye", as always!" Astrid shrugs her shoulders, "Anyways, we can find it out: now we have a clue!" she smiles and keeps on walking. Lev wraps the pen in an old fashioned handkerchief with an embroidered letter "A" on it and gently slips the pen into his pocket.

Meantime the darkness is steadily growing, and Nina is already sleeping. She would surely fall if I didn't catch her. I put her in my big pyjamas pocket as gingerly and gently as Lev did the same with an important pen, for I need my both hands to put away branches or disgusting gossamers that get in my way. It seems that they appear only when they see me, ready to get into my eye and mouth or simply scratch my cheek. Billy and Astrid are going easily and lightly as if we are on a lovely beach stroll and ready to have a fantastic picnic in a minute or so.