What did define someone as naughty? Can someone be redeemed?
Remorse Of An Adventurer II
Tangled Paths
By DaringDanger
IX: The Yule Lads
A few weeks later…
"I'll never understand this festival. We're going to sell broth for the Sparrow Scouts near the special tree?" I pondered.
"Yes the Sonstansil tree! And Frida was supposed to be here helping us." David groaned as we trudged through the snowy sidewalks of Trolberg, Alfur and Twig tagging along with us.
"So the tree only blooms at night and you throw a party when it does?" I continued.
"There's also the gift sharing!" David cheered. "We get good tips from selling the veggie broth, so you might be able to buy a nice gift, if you have someone in mind."
"Besides you I assume?" I laughed.
"Of course, giving your brother a gift is expected. I'm getting you one." David jabbed me jokingly.
"Where is Frida actually?" I wondered. We hadn't seen much of her since the bells, but she hadn't told us why. "It's not like her to be late."
"We can't be late for the broth either, Hilda." As David spoke something caught my eye. "Hilda?" He asked as I stopped.
"David, was this house here yesterday?" I pointed to an A frame house, in what I swear was normally a park.
"Maybe? I'm not actually sure."
"Want to take a look?" I asked.
"But the Broth! The Tips!" David insisted.
"I checked my report on the layout of Trolberg, and this definitely is new." Alfur poked out of my coat.
"You just carry that?" I asked.
"Of course. Doesn't everyone?" He said. I ran into the park, snow crunching under my boots. Ducking behind a snow drift, I gestured for David to catch up. Once he did I moved up against the house.
I pressed my ear against the wall and heard the sounds of music and cheering beyond it. "Sounds like a party." I noted.
"We're not invited, Hilda." Alfur reminded.
I jiggled the door knob. "If we weren't invited, they should've locked the door." I leaned back and twisted the handle, peeking in. The room was full of small creatures, no bigger than David or I, all partying wildly.
"Can I see?" As David pushed against me we both fell, making a huge ruckus.
"We've been had lads! Scatter!" As the red creature spoke the others ran for hiding spots.
"David." I groaned.
"Sorry." He said sheepishly.
"We mean you no harm." I said. Some of them were hidden rather poorly. "We heard a party and we thought you might be hungry, we're selling broth."
"Can we ask you something?" The red one asked, poorly hidden under a lampshade. "Are you naughty kids?"
"No, I don't think so."
"Told you!" David screamed as the red fellow appeared behind him in an instant.
"Don't sneak up on people!" David complained.
"Sorry, force of habit." He'd moved rapidly once again, now standing in front of us.
"We've never noticed this house before, who are you lads?" I asked.
"I'm Kertasnikir, but you can call me Kert. And these fellows and I make up the thirteen Yule Lads." Kert and six of the others quickly moved and posed on the table in the center of their home.
"That only makes seven of you." David pointed out.
"Shift work." Kert noted.
"What kind of work though?" He continued.
"We find kids who are naughty." He finished the sentence with an ominous flare.
"What do you want with the naughty kids?" I ask.
"You're asking a lot of questions!" The yellow lad jumped in front of me.
"She's curious, to a fault." David noted.
"They're good kids, we can tell them!" Kert pulled the yellow lad away.
"Not until they've been triple checked." A gray lad sat on the table gently tapping a cane against his hand. Suddenly the other lads blew out all the candles.
"Have you ever thrown rocks at your neighbors windows?" A voice came from behind us.
"Have you ever swiped a shilling from your mother's purse?"
"Ever whisper 'I hate you' in the ear of your grandma's tallest sheep?"
"That one is oddly specific." David noted. The lights suddenly came back on.
"No, I don't think we've done any of those things." I said.
"Okay, well here's the story-"
"Well there was the Draugen thing Hilda."
"David, that all worked out in the end and you know it." The Yule Lads made sounds of disappointment.
"Anyway, we're in charge of giving candy to the children the morning after the Sonstansil tree blooms." Kert explained.
"But there isn't enough for every child, so we skip the naughty ones." the gray lad finished.
"If you're good kids like you say, then you can prove it by spotting naughty ones for us!"
"I'm not sure I feel comfortable judging people that way." I said. At that moment David did the watch tapping motion. "We're going to be late for opening the broth booth." With that we walked out, but I turned back. "You can come to the winter festival if you like, all the kids will be there, and there will be food!" The lads cheered and quickly followed us.
David was an expert at selling broth, not something I'd ever have guessed. He'd spent the whole evening raking in tips and I'd more or less spent it sipping broth with Twig and Alfur. However a lull in traffic had begun and the four of us were now mostly just fidgeting.
"Hey Hilda, can I talk to you about something?" David slouched down a bit against the wall.
"Sure."
"Do you mind giving us some space Alfur?" David asked.
"I suppose I can go write a report on the Sonstansil tree." He murmured as he hopped off of my shoulder and walked out.
"What is it you can't tell Alfur?" I asked.
"It's a bit embarrassing, okay?"
"Alright, no judgment here."
"I've been having this reoccurring dream-"
"Is this like, a Marra thing?"
"No, I don't think so. It's a dream that's more or less a normal day, except I'm…" He was fidgeting, abnormally nervous, even by David's standards. "I'm wearing girls' clothes."
"That doesn't sound so bad, less embarrassing than having one of those naked at school dreams."
"I've never had a dream like that."
"Oh, well I used to have them all the time before the Alp attacked me." I hadn't thought about that in a while. Every single dream I've had since has been lucid. "I still don't think that's too weird. You did wear my clothes for a whole evening." I continued.
"Yes but they aren't your clothes, they're orange, like all of mine. I'm not just wearing girls' clothes in the dream. I am a girl in the dream."
"Huh. Still it's just a dream, why is it bothering you so much?"
"Because I find myself… sort of looking forward to that dream." He said without making eye contact.
"I'm not so sure what to make of that. I've had a dream or two about being a boy but, I've never really gotten particularly emotional about it."
"I'm just really confused." David put his head in his hands.
"We can figure it out together." I said softly. Footsteps suddenly approached the booth. The Yule Lads were all walking up, downtrodden.
"No luck finding the naughty kids?" I asked.
"They hide their tracks well. We might have to pull a double shift lads." Kert said. "Are you going to finish that?" He pointed to a lit candle on the booth counter.
"No?" I said, perplexed. He grabbed it and took a bite, before spitting it back out.
"I think your candle's gone bad."
"Why don't you try some broth instead?" David handed me a bowl on cue.
"I usually only eat candle based food."
"Give it a try, on me." I pulled a one out of the tip jar, to David's disapproval. He took a sip and pondered for a moment.
"That's splendorous!" He cheered. "What's in it?"
"Love." David beamed.
"No, the recipe."
"Chopped garlic-" I covered his mouth before he could give the recipe away.
"Ah, a secret recipe. Fair enough. We'll take 7 servings then."
"twenty two fifty." David replied.
"The thing about that is…" He pulled out his empty pockets.
"Fine, we'll give it to you."
"Hilda!" David complained as I took the tip jar.
"We have another whole day to make tips." I pointed out.
"Naughty kids you are not!" Kert smiled. Suddenly a snowball just missed the pot.
"Get down!" Kert jumped the counter as a flurry of snowballs began striking. I peered over the counter to see Trevor and his gang pulling from a huge pile of snowballs.
"Trevor." I moaned.
"Trevor's the worst. If you want naughty, you've found it." David complained.
"His mom's the same way." I noted. She'd spent the last year saying awful things about me at parent-teacher conferences. A snowball hit the pot and knocked it over, spilling broth all over the table and ground.
"No!" David yelled.
"Case and point." I added.
"Did you say adults can be naughty?" Kert asked.
"Yeah." David said.
"Absolutely." I replied.
"That's the best news I've heard in years!" Kert dashed out.
"Well, we are going to have to stand up to Trevor." I said. David nodded and we threw ourselves over the top.
"Trevor! Stop it!" I yelled.
"Ooh, we're the Sparrow Scouts! Come eat our broth made of roots and mold!" He sneered.
"Mushrooms are a fungus!" David corrected. A snowball hit him in the face and I quickly pulled him behind a snow drift.
"Maybe this wasn't the best plan." I noted.
"Sneak attack!" Kert's voice echoed. We looked up and saw all seven Yule Lads chucking snowballs at the kids.
"Scatter!" Trevor yelled as all of them ran from the lads.
"Turns out naughty kids get snowballs." David chuckled as he cleaned the snow from his face.
We returned to the destroyed stand, broth spreading across the floor.
"So much for gifts." David said in a somber tone.
"What happened!?" Frida said, as she suddenly entered the booth.
"What do you mean what happened? What happened to you?" David protested the girl's tardiness.
"I got caught up with something." She said. Suddenly a new voice filled our ears.
"I'm something." David jumped as the pigtailed Marra appeared on the counter top.
"What are you doing with her!?" David and I both asked in unison.
"It's a long story." Frida dismissed.
"Ours is too." David replied.
"Are you sure you should be here?" I asked the Marra. "You know there are wanted posters everywhere for you guys."
"I'm not afraid of the safety patrol, bike girl." She laughed. "Besides, they've hardly even gotten a good look at any of us."
"They kicked us out of our camp, Twinny." Kelly walked up more quietly. It was actually odd to see one of them using their feet.
"Boo hoo, the nightmare spirits don't have their fire anymore." David jabbed. Both Marra shot him a green eyed look and he cowered backwards.
"Well, we met some odd fellows today too, and then Trevor ruined the broth." I gestured to the mess.
"So much for the tips." Frida noted.
"Thank you!" David was clearly protective of his tips.
"Shall we tell you about our day?" Frida asked.
"May as well have a story while we clean." I replied.
Earlier that day…
***Frida***
The snow crunched under my feet as I walked to David and Hilda's house. Trolberg had really started to change since the bell incident. Ahlberg got much more proactive about Troll safety, among other things, despite his bells never going live due to the severe damage to the main bell tower. The city was full of posters warning about Trolls, as well as notices about nightmare spirits. Although draining people of their blood wasn't really in the Marra's usual behavior, Ahlberg never seemed to care about facts and logic.
Footsteps grew behind me. I turned to see two regrettably familiar faces: Kelly and the pigtail Marra.
"Here to haunt me in the day now?" I asked.
"No, actually." Kelly started. "We might need help."
"Help from me?"
"You are a witch, right?" Pigtail asked.
"Barely."
"It so happens your kind and our kind have a long history together." Pigtail said.
"And we don't know who to trust right now." Kelly grabbed a poster with a grainy picture of green eyes on it from the wall.
"The Safety Patrol has surveillance all around the Huldrawood. It's scared a bunch of us out of our resting places." Pigtail added.
"Don't you all just live with your parents?"
"Kelly does. The rest of us either don't have them anymore, or have been Marra too long to return." Pigtail explained.
"I'm confused."
"We're spirits, our forms don't age. Some of us are actually rather old."
"Why is that not included in the books about you guys?"
"Same reason the best pictures they have for our wanted posters are grainy. We're secretive." Kelly said.
"And you're also certain you aren't killing people in their sleep?" I nervously ask.
"I haven't killed someone since the roaring twenties." Pigtail laughed as Kelly jabbed her.
"So you guys just need a place to sleep then? Do you sleep?"
"Yes, and kind of." Pigtail said.
"That shouldn't be hard. We'll just have to find you guys the right abandoned building. There should be a register of all the properties that are abandoned at city hall, and who owns them. Unfortunately it's closed for the Winter festival."
"Nothing is closed to us, dummy." Pigtail sneered.
Present time…
***Hilda***
"-so we broke into city hall, looked through a bunch of papers, picked them out an old hotel, and then I broke into it with my unlocking spell." Frida finished.
"You blew the door out with the unlocking spell." Kelly laughed.
"So why are they here then?" David questioned.
"Broth." Both said in unison.
"Well, like we said, Trevor ruined it." I groaned.
"We'll add him to our nightmare list again then." Pigtail said in a sinister voice before both girls left.
"Do they need to eat?" David asked.
"I doubt it, knowing what I know now." Frida explained.
"Well, we're all clean here. Let's find Alfur and go home."
"You will be here tomorrow, right Frida?" David pressed.
"Yes, no distractions."
Later
"David! Hilda!" David's mum yelled from downstairs before walking into David's room. "Can you both please kick the snow off of your boots before you walk in? This is the third time I've told you."
"Sorry mum." We said in unison.
"If you guys don't start cleaning up after yourselves Gryla will get you!" She laughed.
"Gryla?" We both asked.
"Old winter fairy tale. Gryla comes after naughty children on the night the Sonstansil tree lights up. I don't think either of you are bad of course." She laughed. "She's an ogre, and no one knows where she lives, or exactly what she looks like. She seeks out naughty children and turns them into stew." David pulled himself under the covers of his bed.
"Keep going!" I insisted, despite David's reaction.
"No, it's late. I can get you both a book of winter tales tomorrow, okay?" With that she walked out of David's room, and I retreated to my own.
The next day
Kert walked up to the broth stand early, and I gave him a cup of broth. "Long night?" He slammed the broth in one go as I spoke.
"They're all long. The other lads are still asleep, bums they are."
"Hilda the tips!" David complained as he hauled a crate of veggies in.
"Did you notice Trevor's mum's store is closed?" Frida asked as she walked up.
"Good, he won't be here to knock the broth over again." I pointed out.
"At least we've made some good tips today." David jingled the tip jar. "We might be able to do gifts after all."
"Oh you don't have to get me anything." Kert smiled.
"It's for each other, silly." I corrected.
"Also maybe for mum, tradition and all." David added.
"She's been grinding on my gears lately though." I mumbled.
"In a naughty way?" Kert asked.
"More of a confusing way." I shrugged, but Kert had already vanished before I finished. "Where did he go?"
"Trolbergians!" A man said over the loudspeaker. "The Sonstansil tree is officially less than 24 hours from blooming! We'll see you back here tonight!"
Later
"So what did you get David?" Alfur asked as I scribbled in my notebook.
"I actually didn't have enough for him and Frida. But I think I found something meaningful for David anyway."
"Hilda!" David's mum's voice came from the kitchen "I found that book on Gryla for you!" As she finished speaking there was a large ruckus. As I ran downstairs David quickly hopped out of his room to join me.
The kitchen was destroyed, like a storm had blown through, and one of the windows was open, letting cold air in.
"What on Earth?" David said, closing the window. Twig came into the room and began growling.
"What is it Twig?" He was sniffing a particular book on the floor. The book of winter tales. I grabbed it and found it on the Gryla page.
"The Yule Lads are said to work for the ogress Gryla. They prepare for her awakening all year round, and just before Gryla wakes, they collect the main ingredient for her stew, naughty children, so they don't become the meal themselves."
"They've got mum!" David yelled.
"Trevor too probably." I added. "We need to get Frida!"
Eleven approached as the three of us reached the Sonstansil tree. "Kert!" I yelled. "Or should I call you Candlesnatcher!"
"Me? A Candlesnatcher? No." Kert walked out from behind the tree. "Okay you got me, I'm naughty." The other Yule Lads looked on nervously from the tree. "Gryla caught me nicking candles and told me naughty lads belong in a stew. I told her I'd bring her two if she spared me. Eventually there were thirteen of us and all of us had the same agreement. Gryla never let any of us go. We're not proud of our work, we're bound to it because of our naughtiness."
"None of you are naughty, you just did naughty things."
"Like kidnap my mum!" David jabbed.
"And I have an idea of how to get you out of this."
"What is that, Hilda?" Kert asked.
"The broth."
"Really? The broth?" Kert questioned. The lads huddled and whispered for a minute, before knocking their heads together. "We like you and your broth, so we'll make you a deal. We'll return everyone to their home, if you show us how to make it!"
"No deal!" David yelled.
"This is a special case David!" Frida complained.
"Deal." I shook his hand.
We took our hiding spots in the tree just before midnight, after making a huge pot of broth, and the lads just returning from un-kidnapping people.
"Here she comes!" David whisper-yelled as he pointed to a large, hairy creature in the clearing. Her clothes were made of patchwork and she carried multiple cages. She sniffed the broth a bit before taking it away.
"Good job everyone." I whispered. Just as I did, a light filled my vision. Flowers from the Sonstansil tree began to bloom. We all climbed down before the town began pouring in.
"You guys didn't tell me they glow!" I looked on in awe at the tree as the Yule lads vanished into the night, giving a friendly wave as they went. I approached David. "I didn't have enough tips to buy you something fancy, but I do have something for you." I reached into my pocket and produced a cassette tape. "It's a mix tape, mostly lite rock." David gave me a quick hug. Frida smiled at us as I looked over David's shoulder.
To Be Continued in: The Nightmare Demon