Chapter One: Cow Girl
Ea walked along her few cows across the empty mountain fields as the wind whipped around her, she had just lost another two cows that night, in fact one of them was her favourite and she walked with a heavy heart. She was a young vittra, not yet fully grown and only with her cows to keep her company.
She was alone and had separated from her family in a horrible winter storm years ago, she had not yet learned from her parents all the ways of milking and tending to cows and had to learn herself. She knew just enough to survive on her own, to take shelter in chalets abandoned during the winter when people climbed down the mountains and never tell a human your real name. And enough to for the most part keep her small herd of cows alive and happy.
She talked and sang with them when she could and they loved her back, there were only a handful of them now. She glanced over her thinning herd she lost several in the winter storm that had separated her from her family, the cold not to mention the sickness, then there was the shortage of food over the winter and in the spring there were predators. Not to mention old age, the fairy had seen several of her only friends die of old age.
Life wasn't all that lonely there were countless fairies all around her, she could even see several dancing in the wind ahead of her and they soon flew over to dance around her and her cows that were only visible to faerie eyes. But fae were particular about who they associated with and besides their family, vittra were for the most part solitary fearies, despite her desperate desire to make companions it was not in Ea's nature to approach others. And they wanted very little to do with her, and in fact the young vittra had to learn on her own what fae folk were dangerous for her to be around. If not for her cows she may have died on the ice three winters ago lured by another fearie, they had prevented her from walking out onto the thin ice and most certainly her death. Not to mention large trolls that desired nothing more than to devour her cattle and grind her bones. If the elements were not enough, the solitude and the other faires placed further burden on the young vittra's back.
However, things were getting even more difficult for the young fearie, lately humans were no longer retreating back down the mountain in winter, in fact they stayed all winter long and finding shelter from the harsh wind and snow of Norway was getting difficult. And she had yet to learn how to make one of her people's underground shelters. Humans kept encroaching on faerie land, and though they hadn't come in contact with her yet, Ea had been forced to move more than once because faeries who were forced to move chased her out of her home.
Her cow next to her called for her attention and sniffled at her side before forcing it's head under her hand, she smiled and stroked it's soft coat gently. She slowed her pace and then clambered on top of it. She rode atop her cattle as they trekked to the latest chalet she had managed to find, it was summer time so it was increasingly difficult for a homeless fae to find somewhere to live.
She stretched her arms over her head and smiled happily to herself, but then her cows halted in their tracks staring ahead to her chalet that had been invaded by strangers. Five to be exact, their monster for that was the name of the large metallic object that Ea had seen humans climbing in and out of sat silently-presumably asleep she figured in front of the chalet it's many mouths opened.
The five strangers stood before the chalet she was using for residence with their luggage stacked up and looking the quaint house over. All around Ea her few cows called out at her upset, frightened and frustrated. She stroked the nearest ones on the head, "It'll be okay, I'll get our house back I'll make sure of it!" she promised them.
"Hey! You bunch of pussy willow jack rabbit dingos! That's my house you're in and you better get out of it right now!" she yelled, Ea knew she wasn't to approach humans, her parents had warned her of the danger. Humans killed Fae in horrible ways, binding them in irons, burning them, drowning them… Ea shuddered recalling the horrifying stories her father would tell her. And because of this she had little experience she huffed in frustration as they ignored her, "Hey I'm talking to you! You stupid puffins!" she yelled at the top of her small lungs her voice grating but to be met with no response.
"Splotches tut tut!" she yelled lightly tapping the cow, splotches that she sat atop. The cow gave her a moo in response and complied to her order trotting over to the invaders the other cows following cautiously after.
Ea slipped off of her loyal stead leaving her next to the stack of luggage, her cheeks were puffed out with her anger and her hair was rising, "Hey! This is my house you hear me humans! My parents told me that you don't come near fearie homes so leave!"
"This is my house shoo!" she yelled and approached the smallest adult one, "Leave my house alone!" yet he stared right through her continuing to talk with the second shortest adult member of the group, she glanced back and forth between the two individuals both oblivious to her presence. She waved her dirty muddy hand in front of the boys' faces but they couldn't see her, nor her cows that were moving around the group. Splotches stepped back into the second tallest of the group and he tumbled forwards turning to look at the individual behind him, which happened to be the boy that Ea was waving her hand in front of out of curiosity.
"Iceland! There's no need to shove! We'll get everything packed before your big brother arrives!" he yelled out annoyed.
"I did not push you!" the small boy shouted back and Ea watched the exchange, just then another one of her cows knocked the stack of luggage that toppled over one of the suit cases popping open.
"Finland! My suitcase fell over and now all of my things are on the floor!" whined the child of the group pointing to the suitcase and throwing himself into a tantrum. His cries grating on Ea's sensitive ears and she winced clamping her hands down over her ears at the infernal sound of a child crying.
The other short boy she had been waving a hand in front of dashed off to assist the child, realization slowly dawned upon Ea, if she couldn't convince them to leave she'd make them leave, or at least make their stay as unpleasant as possible. As the group of five finally began to move their things inside she set to work, she tripped the one her cow had knocked earlier but to her dismay he caught himself before he could fall. She moved and switched luggage cases on them in the hopes to deter them from staying but all she seemed to do was irritate them.
Lunch soon came around and she sat hungrily from a tree branch glaring into the kitchen where the group of intruders sat around eating. She watched as they bickered amongst themselves and ate. Her cows wandering around in the fields below her happily eating away at their lunch while she moped.
"That's my house they're in and they are going to come out of it!" she yelled exasperated folding her arms, "I need to take more drastic measures." Carefully she clambered farther up the tree slipping into the house through one of the upper windows. She found the water room, the room filled with knobs that when twisted or pulled released water.
There were bottles neatly aligned on the counter and she trotted over to them sniffing them curiously. They smelled weird, some sweet, some spicy and others smells she didn't recognize. Curious she tipped one of them over for brightly coloured goo to ooze out that she smeared across the counters, it was slippery on her fingers.
She found a clear bottle with a green liquid in it, she swirled it curiously and struggle with the lid before figuring out how to remove it. She sniffed it and it smelled like mint, must be some sort of fairie wine they have with them and they stole it. She thought and took a large swig of the liquid to spit it out in disgust. She looked to the mirror that was now covered in the green liquid and laughed at her handiwork. She then looked down at the bottles and idea forming in her mind and she began to unscrew all of the caps. Just as she was finishing her handiwork she heard someone approaching the water room. She jumped in fright and began to rearrange all of the bottles as she had found them… though she couldn't quite say so for their contents.
She glanced to the window and slammed it shut climbing onto the window sill to watch, the door opened and the tallest of the group stepped in looking over the room, "Finland!" he shouted at the top of his lungs as he looked over the mess that Ea had made.
One of the small boys she had been waving her hand in front of appeared in the doorway, "Finland did you make this mess?"
"No I didn't." Finland replied.
"But Finland you were the one in charge of the washroom." The tall stern man replied, Ea watched as the small one protested and the discussion continued and eventually all of the occupants of her house were gathered in the room complaining and bickering over the mess. It was reorganised but much to her delight they did not discover what she had done to the contents of the bottles.
As the humans returned to their meal downstairs Ea once again let herself back into the house slipping through the window, she trotted down the hall poking her head curiously into rooms to find where the boys were staying. Once figuring out where they were all resting she set to work reorganising the contents of their drawers and bags.
She snickered to herself as she finished reorganizing the last of their clothes, she made a small mess with laundry strewn on the floor. Admittedly she got distracted by some of the clothes, many faeries managed to get very bright colouration into their clothes. Ea looked down at her dress, it was brown and dirtied. Her people usually only wore white or red dependant on their mood, but she had no idea on how to mend or make clothes.
But what was distracting with these human clothes was patterns bold shapes and images, she stroked her fingers over them amazed and curious at what they meant. There were trousers and shirts, and sweaters and scarves… and then Ea found several very short trousers that were extremely stretchy. These distracted her as she preceded to stretch and watch them recoil she also found that she could send them flying by stretching them which she did.
Just as she finished closing the last door to the rooms she heard the door down stairs slam shut, hopeful that for whatever reason the humans had abandoned her house. She sprinted down the stairs practically flying off of them, she stopped on the last stair and looked to the door to see a boy with short light blonde hair, a stoic expression and dull blue eyes.
He suddenly looked to the stairs where she had just sprinted down and looked directly at her she squeaked in fright and ducked behind the wall surprised. She peeked around to see him still staring at her, "What are you doing here?" he asked her curious at the appearance of a fairie in his house. He watched as the tiny fairy squeaked and ducked behind the wall again sprinting up his stairs. Suddenly the rest of the Nordics burst in and distracted him and Norway could not question the mysterious being.
It wasn't until bed time arrived that the Nordics found the devastation of their rooms, Norway observed it all silently and checked the house over to find no sign of the fae he had seen earlier, but just in case he left lemon juice and small cookies at one of the windows to appease the fae that had obviously been angered at their arrival.
But there was little that Norway could do, he couldn't convince the others that a faerie was angered at their arrival and their trip was to last for a week. He just hoped the small token would appease the fae, it looked young so he figured a simple offering like this would put it at ease.