CHAPTER FIVE: NO MATTER WHAT

They left well into the night. Lilla-My had wiggled out from where she'd made her home in a cupboard. Mumintroll had slipped away from Mama's arm over his shoulder, gently setting it back down on the bed. They took what they thought they might need and put it in Mumintroll's backpack, and they left through the front door.

"Don't look back," Lilla-My told him as they hurried through the silent town. "They'll find out soon enough."

The forest was much thinner compared to theirs at home, full of the sorts of trees that lose their leaves in the wintertime instead of evergreen pines. As such, the starlight shone through enough that they could make their way, however haphazardly, without their small lantern, and there was no need for a map to find where they were going.

The mountain would have been beautiful if not for the circumstances of the climb. The wind was picking up, howling down the now-barren, steep wall of the mountain face, carrying the frost with it. It was cold, even for Mumintroll, and twice already, he'd had to look back to make sure Lilla-My was still holding his numb tail, walking in his wake in the snow. Mumintroll stopped and braced against the gusts. His feet slid ever so slightly backward.

Maybe this was a bad idea, he thought. They were never going to make it like this, just the two of them. Why did they think they could? They were frozen, they were hurting.

Because he's frozen and hurting, too.

The wind released them long enough to move again, and it wasn't two steps before Lilla-My tugged his tail and pointed above them. There, up the slope and half-hidden by snowdrift was the open mouth of a cave. The two hurried toward it—even if it wasn't the cave they needed, it would offer shelter for a moment.

"Okay, we've made it," said Lilla-My, shaking the snow off of her like a dog. "Now, we just have to find the right one."

"It can't be that hard, can it?" Mumintroll asked, trying to be optimistic. He looked behind them into the shallow cave. There was nothing and no one else there, just solid stone. How many other caves would be just like this one? What they needed was a sign, a miracle, something!

The scream ripped down the mountain and shook their eardrums. They closed their ears and looked out from their small cave in a panic.

"Where is it coming from?" Lilla-My yelled over the noise.

Mumintroll's heart sank: "I don't know! Quick!"

They both ran out into the snow again, glancing around, turning their heads every which way to try to find the source. The scream ended, jostled by the wind, and was gone.

"It was up there!" Lilla-My shouted, though she couldn't hear herself, and pointed further up the mountain. Mumintroll nodded, wide-eyed, and they hurried off again.

Dark circles arose from the shifting snow, peering down at them like empty eye sockets. There were so many to choose from, but at least they were here. Mumintroll forced himself to shut his eyes and take a deep breath, reaching out with his heart as if it might tell him the way.

"We'll start with this one!" he yelled, leaning down close to Lilla-My. "Then, we'll go left, one-by-one!"

And they did. Mumintroll would poke his head in, listening carefully. Lilla-My would wait, then call out as loud as she could, "HEYYYY!" There was no response in one, two, three, a dozen caves. Not a bear, not a mountain lion, not a rat.

It was as they neared a very small-looking cave, the mouth hardly large enough for Mumintroll walk into without ducking, that a smell assaulted their noses. They put their hands over them and looked at each other. This was it. It had to be.

"Remember the plan," he mouthed to her, afraid to speak.

She glared at the cave. She wanted in. She wanted to go in and get revenge. And…

Mumintroll reached down and adjusted her scarf, pulling it more snugly around her. He was stiff, swallowing hard. She stared. She did not want him to go. They could change the plan, she could go in instead, and he could run for help instead, they didn't have to do it like this! She… she couldn't bear to lose two friends. She could hardly bear the one.

Mumintroll patted her cheek. He knew she knew that he knew what she was thinking. He shook his head at her and brought out the small lantern, lighting it. She did not stop him as he poked his head inside the cave mouth, listening, and his ears twitched suddenly in the same direction. He looked back out again at Lilla-My and nodded once before going in.

It was dark. Very dark. Even with the lantern light, the darkness seemed to loom, as all-consuming as the stench of rot. Unlike the other caves, this one was damp, little droplets of water forming on the uneven ceiling and dripping down to the uneven floor. Mumintroll slipped a little but caught himself on the slick wall with a short curse under his breath.

"Hello?" came a far, cracked voice.

Mumintroll startled and lifted his lantern. A fork in the path greeted him.

"Hello ?" came the voice again, weak and from the left-hand path. "Is someone there?"

His heart hammered in his chest. What should he do? If it was the creature, then answering or following it would surely spell his death. But if it was Nuuska…

No. No, he couldn't take the chance. Even though it pained him, he bit his lips shut and quietly went down the right-hand path.

"Pleas e," came the voice from far-off. "Plea se, help me."

He ignored it as best he could, listening ahead. Something was moving somewhere in this cave, and it was not the same as the light scratching on the stone behind him.

He was glad he had come alone. He was glad Lilla-My was outside, waiting for his call to run. He was glad Mama and Papa and the others were asleep, unaware for now, and not hearing the eerie sounds that reverberated through the cave tunnels. No, now that he was alone, he felt strong, determined. Vaguely, he wondered if the feeling would last.

Water dripped from the ceiling and landed on his head, between his ears, and he flinched. He stopped. The scratching behind him continued, closer and closer. He fell very cold, his paws and feet throbbing with every thick heartbeat. The scratching stopped just behind him. He could feel breath on his neck, his fur standing on end, the charred and rotten air stinging his nose.

On pure instinct, Mumintroll swung the lantern around, and it hit against the creature's head with a hard CRACK! Its head snapped to the side, white skull gleaming beneath the brittle black skin, and as it turned back to him, soot shook from it in thinly-veiled anger.

Before Mumintroll could react, the creature was on him, leaping from its crawl on the rock like a spider pouncing on prey. Its grin flashed in the light as the lantern rolled away.

" ?" it inquired, holding him at arm's length. Its burning eyes looked him over hungrily. " ?"

"Where is he?!" demanded Mumintroll, and he kicked. "What did you do with him?!"

"O h ," the creature said amusedly and chuckled lowly. It lifted him up, dangling by one arm, and carried him further into the cave. " . ."

Mumintroll squirmed nervously. This was always a possibility, he knew. He had just hoped it wouldn't be the case. But it didn't matter. Either way, he was going to find a way out. Either way, he was going to find Nuuska.

It was only as they left the light of the abandoned lantern that the creature's footsteps began to echo differently, as if the cave had gotten wider or… or deeper. He felt himself being lifted higher, stretched out away from the creature's body.

" !"

The choking bellow reverberated below them, and Mumintroll hadn't a moment to consider why before he was dropped.

His feet hit stone, then his knees, then his belly, and he bounced forward before landing at last on cold, solid rock. He groaned, face-down against the floor, as he caught his breath. A cold, unfamiliar hand lightly touched his arm.

"Mumintroll?"

Mumintroll's heart leapt at the small voice, and he jerked painfully up, searching wide-eyed and hopeful through the darkness.

"Nuuska! Nuuska, is that you?"

"I'm here."

The cold hand took his arm, and he realized it was large, too large. The fingers wrapped all the way around his forearm, the joints crackling. In a panic, he yelped and pushed it away. He reached into the pocket of his backpack, pulled out the box of matches, and struck one, and for a brief moment, the pit was filled with bright, phosphoric light. Dozens of white faces stared out from the walls, their eyes dark, their thin bodies limp—but it was the elongated corpse before him, its hair long and red, its pale and spindly hand still outstretched to him, that frightened him the most even as it cowered away.

"Get back!" Mumintroll threatened, holding out the match.

The creature did, or at least it tried. It turned its body away awkwardly, its legs crooked and useless in front of it, protecting something in its arms. Mumintroll stopped—he hadn't noticed that before. Hesitantly, he lowered the match.

"Nuuska?" he asked, unsure.

"Mumintroll!" came the weak voice again, hardly more than a whisper. It was not the creature speaking. "It's alright! Sh-she's a friend."

Mumintroll slowly, cautiously approached the creature, who slowly, cautiously turned back toward him. Her clouded eyes squinted in the light, and cradled in her arms, Nuuska did, too. Mumintroll tossed the match aside seeing him and forgot his fear. He threw his arms around him as best he could, holding him close, his forehead pressed to his.

"You're here!" he sobbed. "You're here, you're alive!"

"I knew you'd come," Nuuska whispered hoarsely. His skin was damp with the air and cold, so very cold.

Mumintroll remembered his backpack and pulled it off, digging into it and producing the emergency items he'd brought—a hot-flask, a coat, a toque, a pair of socks, and Nuuska's boots.

" little trol ?" asked the pale creature curiously. Her voice wavered in the same way as the blackened fiend who'd brought them here, but it was soft, high, and ragged.

Nuuska felt the open flask be pushed into his hands, and he sipped the warm water with a relieved sigh: "Yes, that's him."

Mumintroll sniffled and shook his head clear. He held out a paw to the creature he could no longer see before him and embarrassedly said, "It's nice to meet you."

The creature stared for a moment, then carefully wrapped her hand around it: " goo s."

"I'm sorry I yelled at you."

"I t i y. N o t the onl ."

Mumintroll looked up at the mouth of the pit. Two yellow eyes looked disappointedly down before turning away. If that was the top, it had to be at least ten meters above them, as it was about the same height as Muminhouse. Good. Mumintroll dug a rope out of his backpack.

"Are you going to throw it?" Nuuska asked through his teeth, very carefully bundling into his borrowed coat.

"I won't have to," Mumintroll replied and knotted one end with a hard tug.

…

Lilla-My raced back down the mountain, following the ditch Mumintroll's girth had made through the snow. She hated this. She hated herself for even suggesting that she was faster than him, that she would be the one to fetch the others. But it was what it was now, and she ran faster than she ever had, speeding down the bare mountainside and into the open forest.

As she finally made it back to town, she found the lights in the inn lit and shadows moving in the windows.

"My!" cried Mama as she appeared at the front door. "Where on earth have you been?! We were worried sick! Where's Mumintroll?"

"No time to explain!" said Lilla-My, pulling herself out of her embrace and turning to the rest of the room, where the whole group was awake and on their feet. "We have to go! We found the cave!"

The annoyed and anxious faces around her turned immediately to surprise and determination. Papa tied on his scarf.

"There's time to be upset about this later," he said firmly. "Let's go!"

…

Though their captor had called her Little Sister, Nuuska refused to use that name for the person who held him.

"Her name is Ylva," he managed, a little less hoarsely now that he had water in him.

" ," the creature repeated in agreement, and the sound of her head nodding crackled like ice. " is Ylva, t o o ."

Mumintroll could not see her in the dark, and he was glad. The look he had gotten would be enough to haunt his dreams for years and years after this. He kept one paw on Nuuska's arm, afraid to lose track of him again, and tried to picture the creature beside him as someone else, anyone else.

"How old are you, Miss Ylva?" he asked politely, eyes shut—they had been crossing trying to see in the dark.

"T e n . N o … should be twelv . ."

Mumintroll's heart ached. She was a child, younger even than them!

"You—" he stuttered "—you're very tall for twelve!"

" enough t ," she replied sadly. " said n o ."

She began to sniffle, and Mumintroll thought of the mangled, useless legs he'd seen in the matchlight. He thought of the other bodies surrounding them in the dark.

"Oh, please, don't cry!" he said. "It's alright! We'll get you out, too, okay? Don't cry!"

" ?"

"Of course! We can't leave you here, after all!"

Nuuska tensed and took his paw: "Mumintroll… who is 'we'?"

"What do you mean?"

"Who else is here?"

Mumintroll felt his grip tighten, and he patted his cold, boney hand comfortingly: "Mama and Papa, Lilla-My, and a doctor, and two of Papa's friends. We were all so worried, and we left as soon as we could to come after you!"

"They're alright?" Nuuska breathed. "It-it didn't hurt them? At the house? They're alright?"

His voice cracked, and Mumintroll felt for his face, drying the dampness on his cheek with his thumb: "They're just fine, I promise."

It was silent for a long moment, finally broken by a choking sound. Nuuska's hands clutched at Mumintroll's fur.

"I'm sorry," he sobbed. "I'm so sorry. I brought it home. I didn't even think. I-I was scared. I'm so sorry, I didn't think."

"Hush," said Mumintroll, leaning in against Ylva's arms to hold Nuuska in his. "Nobody blames you, I promise. I… I would have done the same thing. None of this is your fault."

"But it is! They told me not to climb here. They told me. And I did it anyway."

Mumintroll felt a sting in his heart—maybe it was Nuuska's fault. He was the one who always had to leave in the winter when he could stay home with the rest of them, like when they were little. He was the one who always had to put his nose where it didn't belong, however quietly he did so. He was the one who wouldn't listen when told not to do something dangerous. But then… Mumintroll couldn't blame him. He just couldn't. It wasn't Nuuska's fault that the people of Kala town didn't kill the monster terrorizing their children. It wasn't his fault that it had seen him and followed him and frightened him, nor that it had decided to attack him as it had. And it certainly wasn't his fault that everyone who had tried to protect him when he had come to them for help simply couldn't.

"Stop it," Mumintroll said sternly. "It chose to hurt you. It left you no other choice but to come home. This is its fault, not yours."

"Someone died!" Nuuska croaked into his shoulder.

Mumintroll thought of the screams in the early daylight: "And? Was it you who did it? No. So stop it, stop doing that to yourself."

Ylva's crooked hand settled on his back, and she was sniffling, too.

" ?" she asked timidly. Mumintroll looked up to where her face should be. "I am sorry, t o o ."

"That's alright," said Mumintroll as kindly as he could. "You have nothing to be sorry for either."

"I told o . did no . fell here, t o o. could not catc . a, Joakim… I could not sav ."

Mumintroll felt the eyes of the bodies nearby on him, children with names, children who had cried and yelled and shivered, but no one had come for them. Why had no one come for them?

"Well, it wasn't you who stole them!" he insisted. "You tried your best once they were here, and that's all you can do! Listen, both of you—none of this was because of you! Do you hear me?"

"Yes," said Nuuska.

"Y e s ," said Ylva.

"Good! Then let's stop with all that! This is because of one person, and it's that thing upstairs—er, up there. Mama and Papa are coming soon, and we will all get out of here, and we won't have to worry about it anymore!"

"H o w ?" asked Ylva nervously.

Mumintroll opened his mouth to answer, when his ears perked. He could feel a tremor in his tail, the gently pulling he had been waiting for.

"What is it?" Nuuska asked, confused, seeing his face change.

Mumintroll reached for his tail and untied a red string from it, securing it to the knotted end of the rope still on the ground beside him.

"They're coming," he said with a grin. "They're on their way."

…

The red yarn ran through Lilla-My's hands as she trudged quickly back up the mountainside, the small mob in tow.

"Absolutely not," hissed Papa from behind her. "We are not using you as bait!"

The group all muttered in agreement, and Lilla-My turned just enough to glare at them.

"Well, I can't pull them up myself!" she argued. "And who's going to lure it out? I am! I'm the fastest one here, and you all know it!"

"We'll just have to figure out something else," said Mama calmly, though the tension lurked underneath.

"Like what?"

Silence. A long silence. Certainly long enough to prove her point.

They came to the edge of the forest and stopped, looking out at the crystalline slopes with apprehension. Lilla-My sighed, looking down at the red lifeline in her hands, and pushed it firmly into Papa's paws. She looked him in the eye.

"Trust us," she said.

Papa was quiet for a moment. He glanced at Mama, who hesitantly nodded her approval. His paws closed around the yarn and her hand.

"Alright," he said, then stood straighter. "Alright! To positions, then!"

Lilla-My hurried ahead of them. The wind howled past the many caves with an eerie sound, like a thousand voices wailing out-of-tune. She picked up the red string again and followed it as it veered off the already-disappearing path Mumintroll had carved, headed directly for the small mouth she needed.

Ducking inside, the freshness of the air was gone again, replaced by that foul stench she'd become so accustomed to. All around, there was the moist, dark stone and the glimmering reflection of a light further in. The lantern. She dug deep into her gut and found the strength to keep her heart from sinking—of course he would have dropped the light. Same clumsy old Mumintroll, right? Probably got spooked at a shadow and dropped it and ran off. Yes, she was sure that's what had happened. The yell she'd heard from him was just him being silly, not being caught or hurt. That was it. That was all.

"Where are you, you ugly old bonce?" she grumbled, then took a deep breath. "HEY! WHERE ARE YOU, COWARD?!"

As if in reply, a tiny rock fell from the ceiling, tapping her nose before hitting the ground with the tiniest clatter. She stared down at it, listening, and there was a gurgling sound above her.

She was not afraid. She was not afraid.

Slowly, she looked up.

Claws latched into the ceiling of the cave, the creature glared down at her, yellow eyes bulging. As she began to back away, it tensed and leapt at her, maw wide and hungry. Lilla-My sprinted back out of the mouth of the cave, hearing the creature clatter down behind her with a snarl. It roared after her.

"Y O U !"

She ran out into the deeper snow and dove in, burrowing sideways. The creature dug nearby, pouncing like a snowfox: " Y O U !"

Lilla-My hissed and burrowed further, popping out of the snow a little way away and racing down the mountain toward the trees. The creature spotted her and gave chase, loping after her on all fours, seething.

Behind it, Mama and old Keijo ran into the cave.

Mama tugged at the red string, following it through the forks and turns of breath-moistened rock until it came to the fallen lantern. She shivered but quickly shook the fear away—if her son were hurt, there would be more to show it. She picked up the lantern, and the two carried on.

The echo of their footsteps changed, and Mama felt the string pull sharply downwards. Keijo crept forward, kneeling, then lying on his belly to look down into the pit.

"Hello?" he called cautiously. "Hello, down there?"

"Hello?" came a familiar voice in reply.

"Mumintroll!" Mama sighed in relief and held the lantern out over the pit to see. The darkness seemed to swim, barely parting, but she could see her boy down there, all four limbs and a head of pure white. "Mumintroll, are you alright?"

"We're okay, Mama!" he called quietly. "I found Nuuska! He's here!"

Her heart rose into her throat: "Oh! Oh, my dear boy. Alright! Alright, we're pulling up the rope now!"

Keijo pulled the string up and up and up until he found the knotted end of the rope.

"Mama," said Mumintroll, perhaps a tad worriedly, "there's someone else down here, too."

Mama gripped the rope hard: "They're not hurt, are they?"

"Um… a little. Her legs don't work."

"Oh, oh dear. Here, tie your end under her arms, and we'll pull her up!"

There was the sound of quiet discussion down below and tugging on the rope.

"She's worried you'll be scared of her," said Mumintroll. "I know I was."

"Ahm sure we seen worse," said Keijo in a friendly way, even with a little laugh. "Now, get ready!"

The two of them pulled the rope, and slowly, their passenger rose up and up and over the lip of the pit. Keijo grabbed on to her arm to help her over and found himself staring into old, dead eyes. His blood ran cold, but he swallowed his terror and shakily unbound the pale creature as she watched silently.

"N-next!" he called into the pit, tossing the rope down again.

She turned her eyes to Mama, who tried hard not to stare.

"Y o u ar d?" asked Ylva nervously, her throat waggling.

"N-not at all, my dear!" Mama lied. "I just wasn't expecting such a—n-nice young lady to be in such a place. N-not to worry—we'll be home soon, n-nice and warm."

…

Lilla-My dashed over the last snowdrift and into the trees, the creature close behind. It immediately caught on the first trap—the rabbit noose tightened around its wrist as it knocked against the stick, and one of the small saplings nearby snapped back upright, pulling it away. The creature tripped and growled, then began to laugh.

" l. t."

It pulled on the noose to let itself go, when Papa sprang out of the dry shrubbery and fired both barrels of his borrowed shotgun straight into its chest. The creature shrieked and fell back and cursed, and Papa ducked down again, hurrying away as he reloaded, and Lilla-My reappeared behind the creature to add insult to injury.

"No, you're right!" she teased. "You're much more ugly and stupid than a rabbit!"

The creature got to its feet again, and she raced away further into the woods. It coughed but gave chase anyway, furious, only to be caught in another rabbit noose, this time around the leg. A rifle shot pierced through its back, where its heart once was, with a puff of black dust. It writhed and roared but did not die—young Karlo gulped, slung the rifle over his shoulder, and climbed higher into the tree, just in case.

Again, Lilla-My reappeared.

"You know… I'll bet you deserve that for all the trouble you've caused. There's a word for that, I think. What is it…?"

The creature shrieked at her, kicking at the noose and reaching out to swipe at her. She stepped back and gave an unimpressed smirk.

"Oh, yes, I remember—karma."

And she ran off again, further into the woods.

The creature seethed, its eyes bulging with hatred, when suddenly, it had a thought. It calmed and reached back to release its leg, and without another moment's hesitation, it turned tail and ran back up the mountain. If the little girl wanted to play games, fine. He would make her regret it.

…

"I'm not leaving you down here alone," Nuuska hissed, sweating despite the cold.

Mumintroll looped the rope behind him anyway: "They can't pull us both up at once."

They didn't know how much time they had. The creature could come back at any moment and kill them all. Nuuska breathed fast and shallow, stitches pulling, ribs aching, heart burning and thumping hard—Mumintroll sighed, hearing it all. He tugged twice on the rope and wrapped his arms tightly around Nuuska. Nuuska clung to him, his face pressed into his fur, unwilling to let go as he was slowly pulled up and away.

"I'll be right behind you," Mumintroll said. "Don't worry."

Mama's heart nearly leapt from her chest as she saw Nuuska's head appear over the lip of the pit. He squinted in the lantern light, and he was so very pale and thin, but he was alive! Keijo pulled him up carefully, and Mama extracted him from the loops in the rope with tears in her eyes.

"Mama?" he asked, and his voice was quiet but hopeful.

"I'm right here," she said softly, relieved. "I've got you."

"Mama, I'm sorry."

"You have nothing to be sorry about, dear. It's alright—"

Her ears twitched. The warm joy in her chest melted away, and she shuddered, turning to look into the darkness behind them. There was scratching echoing toward them.

Keijo's fuzzy ears perked, and he sniffed the air: "Uh-oh. Oh no."

Ylva looked down at all of them, their wide eyes and trembling limbs, all so familiar. She turned on to her stomach and dragged herself between them and the dark.

" !" she hissed. " !"

There was nowhere to hide. The cave walls were solid, the few cracks and crevices too thin for any of them to squeeze into.

The creature's teasing voice echoed down the tunnel:

"O h, r! ! !"

Keijo unslung his rifle from his back and pointed it shakily into the dark, stepping in front of Ylva. Mama held on to Nuuska tightly and looked down at where Mumintroll stood waiting. It was the only place to hide. But it was a death sentence. Mama bristled—absolutely not. She pulled Nuuska off to the side and against the wall and tossed the rope back down into the pit.

"Hurry!" she whisper-yelled and felt her son loop the end around himself.

" r, !" the echoing voice laughed, coughing.

Mama tensed, all her days of hauling water from the well, putting up the washing, and scrubbing the house tightening in her arms, and she pulled. Every ounce of anger she'd been keeping down beneath her grief welled up and set her legs sturdy as stone. Desperation filled her lungs and fired in her heart, and the rope was hot as it pulled against the edge of the pit.

Mumintroll's paw reached out, and she grasped it firmly.

" ?"

Keijo's gunshot echoed painfully off the cave walls, the muzzle flash briefly illuminating everything in bright light. Mama held Mumintroll, guarding him as the creature screeched in anger and lashed out. Keijo gave a yelp as his legs were pulled out from under him, and he was dragged into the dark tunnel. Ylva reached out for him, grabbing on to the strap of his rifle, but it was no use. The strap snapped, Keijo disappeared, and the rifle clattered to the ground.

Old Keijo yelled and cursed, kicking at the hand that grabbed him. He reached for his hunting knife and swung it where the arm should be.

"Le' go! Le' go, you mangey motherf—"

Mama pushed Mumintroll to stand with Nuuska, snatching up the rifle and aiming into the dark. Keijo's yelling became frantic screaming, then stopped suddenly. She gasped, shuddering at the silence, and backed away from the tunnel.

"Mama," whispered Nuuska, staring. "It's right there. It's right there."

There was only one shot left in the two-shot chamber. Keijo had the ammunition. She couldn't afford to miss. She couldn't see it there, only hear its scratching steps against the stone. Then, its face came into the lantern-light, eyes full of fury. She pulled the trigger. It clicked. It did not fire.

"No!" Mama yelled, pulling the trigger again and again. "No! No!"

Ylva scuttled quickly, crookedly on her hands, dragging her legs behind. She screamed, both out of fear and as a war cry, the same scream that had ripped down the mountain for decades on the wind, and latched on to the creature, climbing up its body with her claws and burying her teeth in its thin, stringy flesh. It roared and backed away and tried to bat her off, but it couldn't. It dragged her as it tried to escape, and they rolled and scratched and bit and fought nearer and nearer the edge of the pit.

Mama grabbed on to both of her boys and pulled them with her around the fight and into the dark tunnel. They had to go. They had to get out! The creature saw them and screeched angrily as it threw Ylva off, reaching out with its ragged talons and snatching at Mama's feet. She fell with a scream, and Mumintroll grasped her paws, pulling as hard as he could.

Nuuska had fallen with her and, aching, pushed himself up from the ground. The rifle lay at his feet. Without a thought, he grabbed it, shouldered it, and aimed at the shadowy beast, its teeth dripping with hot saliva.

It had hurt his family. It had ruined his body. It had shattered the peace of the wintertime. And it had done it over and over and over again without mercy, without hesitation. He would not hesitate either.

The gunshot ripped through their ears, echoing and reverberating painfully. The creature's head jolted back, its grip on Mama released, and it toppled backward in shock, on to its back, knocking the lantern down into the pit. Ylva latched on to it again, pulling herself by the claws and snapping its arm in half between her hands. It shrieked and flailed but could not fight her, not anymore.

" ," she hissed, the name dripping with poison.

She pulled his other arm, and it crackled and popped out of its socket: " ."

She ripped its leg, pulling the crooked foot clean off in a puff of dust: " ."

She bit into its other leg and tore away the rotten meat, the tendons, the ligaments: " ."

She grabbed on to the bullet hole in its skull and slammed its head against the ground. It reeled, jaw hanging broken.

" ," she spat.

Its remaining yellow eye rolled to stare at her.

"Y o u ," it said proudly in its own voice, " ."

Ylva slammed its head down again: " that! N o more! G o t !"

And she shoved it down into the pit.

The creature's body hit the stone hard, ribs shattering, teeth tumbling out. It moaned and groaned and coughed black dust. The lantern had broken, oil spilling out and coating the ground. Little tongues of fire licked at everything.

Rattle.

The sound of bones?

Rattle rattle.

The creature opened its bursting eye. The bodies sitting against the walls stared back, their heads turned very purposely toward it. Slowly, one by one, they began to lift themselves off the ground, standing, crawling, limping toward it, though the flames ate at them.

"N o ," ordered the pathetic creature. "N o ! !"

The children did not care.

Ten, twenty, fifty little hands, boney fingers digging into its flesh, ripping, gouging, peeling, slapping, punching—dozens of crooked, mismatched milk-teeth biting, tearing, gnashing—and all in silence, not a word, not a cry, not a laugh. The creature would have fought back if it could. It would have wept in pain if it had eyes left. It would have begged for mercy had someone not taken his throat and ripped it away. And again, it was burning, burning, burning, as it surely would for the rest of eternity—of that, it was suddenly sure.

Mama and Mumintroll worriedly sat Nuuska up from the ground, who leaned against them with a dazed look on his face.

"That's—" he took a shaky breath and swallowed what little moisture was left in his mouth "—it kicks more than the guns at the fair."

Mumintroll let out a relieved breath, a small smile breaking on to his face. Mama pushed herself to her feet a deep sigh and turned back to where Ylva rested at the edge of the pit, looking down at the oil fire.

"Are you alright, dear?" she asked, limping toward her. "You're not hurt, are you?"

She put a gentle paw on her icy shoulder and felt the girl tremble. Ylva turned her head, the frost on her skin crackling as she did, and her cloudy eyes were glassy and wet.

"I… I want m ," she admitted with effort. "I want to g !"

Mama reached up and held her face with an encouraging determination: "Well then, let's go!"

…

Lilla-My scrambled back up the mountainside for the fifth time that night, gasping in the thin, cold air and trying not to panic. She had expected the creature to keep chasing her into the forest and away from its cave, but it had turned away—why?! They had managed to weaken it but not to kill it, and a wounded animal was the most dangerous of all. If it found Mama and old Keijo in the cave, it would surely kill them!

She found the cave, the red yarn string still marking the way, and took a deep breath before yelling as loud as she could into the darkness: "HEY!"

Her shout echoed back at her again and again, but there was no movement, no reply. She felt her chest tighten: "MAMAAA! MUMINTROLL! ARE YOU THERE?!"

This time, voices called back.

"My! Lilla-My, we're here!"

From out of the deeper darkness, the two white silhouettes walked slowly, carefully, holding someone between them. Lilla-My stared in disbelief, her eyes finally beginning to water, and she ran at them at full speed, ignoring the calls behind her as Papa, Karlo, and Silje hurried up through the snow. She leapt up and threw her arms around Mumintroll and Nuuska.

"You're okay!"

They stumbled a bit but did not fall. Papa joined them, kissing Mama and holding tight on to the whole group of them. Nuuska stood bewildered, Lilla-My's head pressed against one cheek, Papa's against the other, Mama and Mumintroll's arms around his back. It didn't feel real. He had to be dreaming.

When they finally let go, it was at the behest of the good doctor: "We should go now, before anything else happens."

"Yeah!" Lilla-My agreed forcefully, wiping her face on her sleeves. "I've had enough of this place."

"Where's the old man?" asked Karlo nervously from outside the cave. "Where's my ukki?"

Mama tried to find the words to answer, Papa taking her place under Nuuska's arm, when a voice answered from within the cave behind them.

"Ahm here, ahm here. No need to get fussy."

And sure enough, there Keijo was, emerging dizzily from the dark with naught more than a cut on his furry head. Karlo gave a yelp of excitement and rushed in to hold on to him.

"What happened?!" he asked, on the verge of tears. "Are you alright?!"

"Oh, it's nothin', really. Gave me a good hard bang on the head is all. Good thing ahm so hard-headed, haha."

Regardless, Karlo kept both paws on him as they went back out of the cave. Mama looked concernedly back into the darkness: "Come along, dear. It's alright. Do you need help?"

"Hm?" asked Papa, sniffling. "Who else is there, Mama?"

"I' ," Ylva sobbed, hiding. "T h e y'll shoot m e ."

Papa could not look behind him, but the voice had the same strange elongation that the burnt creature had had. Nuuska felt him tense.

"Papa," he said quietly, "she saved my life. Can't we help her?"

"She killed the monster, Papa!" added Mumintroll.

Papa blinked in surprise, then shook his head firmly to dislodge the visceral fear he felt: "Of course we can help her! Come along, dear, down the mountain, and we'll all get nice and warm again!"

He was very aware, as the dragging sound followed them back out of the cave, of Lilla-My's stiff suspicion and Silje and Karlo's terrified faces, but even old Keijo patted down their hands on their weapons, chiding them. Papa did not look back. If Mama, Mumintroll, and Nuuska said whoever they found in there was good and needed help, then by Jove, he was going to trust that!

The way down the mountain was long and slow now, the wheel of the starry sky turning overhead. Nuuska looked up at them, his breath in cloudy mist, and sighed. The exhaustion was setting in now—was this real? Perhaps he was dreaming, still lying in the dark pit. He opened his eyes again, not even realizing they had closed. Mumintroll shifted his hold on him.

"You're okay," he said encouragingly. "We've got you."

Nuuska curled his fingers into Mumintroll's warm fur and turned blearily to look at him.

"Am I asleep?" he asked.

Mumintroll looked worriedly at him but smiled: "No. No, you're awake."

Nuuska looked around at all the others, strangers, family. Mama held Lilla-My's hand just ahead of him. Papa held him tight on one side, his arm over his shoulders. Mumintroll's gentle gaze was on him, his paws holding him steady. They… they were all here. They had come to get him. They loved him.

Slowly, Nuuska blinked hot tears out of his eyes and let himself lean on to Papa, trembling, warm at last.